“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?  

Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.  

I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.  

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  

I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and  

you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”  Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG) 

Fast forward five months from March 12th and we were back at a season of planning and moving and going. We had social distanced for so long and stayed put for months. Did we even remember how to book appointments in Google calendar? School is happening! Do we go virtually or face-to-face? We’ve been watching church online for five months; is it time to go back in person? Each kid has always had one extracurricular activity, how do we juggle that in a post-Covid world? Work is still remote, what do we do when meetings are during homework after school? My husband and I grappled with these questions, and many more. 

I sat down to the schedule from January and puzzled over how we had done all of it. How do I keep my eyes on what God is making new and embrace the rhythm that He has created for our family? Staring at the old schedule, I laughed…and then threw it away!  I embraced the calm and peace and contentedness that we discovered during summer. If God has watered our desert and brought forth something new and living, then my old schedule was meant to stay dead and buried.  

With fresh eyes I worked to make a daily routine that allowed us to live freely and lightly. Instead of showers at night before bed, we would take showers as soon as we got home from school and put on pajamas. Pajama time every week day until bed! Reading was a struggle when it was part of homework, so I told the kids we weren’t reading for “homework;” we would only read in the evening before bed.  This little tweak of semantics became liberating to homework time, no more struggle to complete a reading chart for school each week.  My kids have yet to figure out that they are still reading!  We started tea time sitting out each night on our porch during summer.  Why not make it a natural part of the wind-down of our day in preparation for sleep?  A month into these changes, and they have helped make coming home cozy and calm.  

We played so many games during the Covid pause.  They were some of the best parts of being stuck at home.  So when school started back, we got rid of TV in the evenings on school nights. That cozy tea time wound up pairing quite nicely with board games and cards. It gives us true family togetherness. Our kids naturally share more of the details from their day when we gather at the table playing, the game itself fading into the background. 

I can honestly look back and say that Covid did us a world of “better.”  Before Covid, our lives were good, we chose good things for our home and family, our schedule and daily life were filled with good.  But God was gracious enough to give us a pause that became a stop so that we could re-examine the good and embrace better.