Dear Church Family,
These are difficult and disorienting days. While I am fairly certain you have been bombarded with all manner of advice on how to survive the “stay-at-home” order, I still thought it might be helpful to offer up some recent tips. The first portion of advice comes from Brian Carpenter, professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, who, in a Wall Street Journal article, gives the following tips:
Structure your days. Try to find a routine that is as normal as possible. Don’t stay in bed. Don’t oversleep. Get up. Take a shower. Make your bed. Set your goals for the day and develop a plan to meet them. Don’t forget to schedule activities that you enjoy.
Stay in touch. Use whatever medium is most comfortable for you. If you don’t want people to see you, stick to the phone and skip the video calls. Reach out to people who don’t have family. If you can’t call, email or text. Any communication is better than none.
Stay positive. Express gratitude. Pay attention to small joys and pleasures. Create positive experiences for yourself during the day.
Limit coronavirus news intake. Pick a couple of trusted news sources and one or two times during the day to check on them. Don’t leave the news on in the background and shut screens off an hour before going to bed.
Maintain the basics: Exercise, eat healthy foods and get plenty of sleep.
And then finally, the last tip, and we saved the best for last, comes from a blog post by Tim Challies:
Above All, Press into the Lord
Above all and by far the best thing about lockdown has been time spent with the Lord. There is a lot of practical and fun advice everyone could share, but almost unanimously, whether in the Middle East, Italy or France, being alone in lockdown has been a precious time to draw closer to Him. We are no longer a time-poor people. We have more freedom to spend time in His Word, in prayer and just simply with Him. This is more important than getting overwhelmed with the plethora of church services and worship sessions now available online.
So please take care of yourselves and seek him (the Lord) and his face continually. If you are not well or you just need a little help or you just want someone to listen to your concerns, please do not hesitate but reach out to me or to pastor Charles. If you have some outdoor work that needs to be done or wood that needs to be split or ditches that need to be dug, please do not hesitate to reach out to pastor Charles. Lol. And finally, a wonderful poem, written by Linda Gammon. Its timing is more than perfect as this is Palm Sunday. Have a blessed week and Lord willing, we will be worshiping together soon.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Dale
Palm Sunday
The Road, 2019
The two year old waves
His branch like a conductor
Before the choir of kids
Singing a song they might
Have learned by heart
Had they known
It would save their lives,
That He truly is the King
And they his subjects,
That one day glory
Will be on their tongues
And in their ears before
The Jesus of their Sunday School
Lessons and zippered Bibles.
But today,
The middle schoolers humor us
And help the littles
As they start and stop
On their way past
Grandparents with cameras.
Tomorrow we’ll carry on
Oblivious to the road
Begun to the Cross.
By Linda Gammon
