These days of social distancing have been equal parts of testing and encouragement for me. I love seeing how the body of Christ rises up to serve their neighbors. I love seeing pictures of families playing games together, doing schoolwork together, and studying the bible together. I love seeing families freed from the stresses of incessant commitments to dance, sports, events, and travel. I love seeing parents breathe.
How about you? Do you long for the days of jamming your schedule full of extracurricular activities again? Don’t get me wrong! I love sports and love watching parents cheer on their gymnasts, future ballerinas, and the like. I think all of these things are good; I just think that living with some intentional margin could be beneficial for us all as well.
In these days, many of us have been given a gift. We have the opportunity to restart. We can begin again. There is no need to rush right out and rebuild everything as it was before. What if we, instead, planted some intentional markers in our lives…boundary stones if you will, that became immovable points that we built our lives around?
For instance:
- If family dinner has been amazing and fruitful, why not make family dinner 2, 3 or 5 times per week a fixed boundary stone?
- If daily exercise, or morning quiet time has been fruitful, why not make it a fixed boundary stone?
- If working together on memory verses or a family bible study has been fruitful, why not make it a boundary stone?
- If shutting off email and rolling all phone calls to voicemail after 6 pm has been fruitful, why not make it a boundary stone?
You may ask, “What good is a boundary stone?”
Long after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, there will be opportunities to join a new bowling league. If it interferes with family dinners, then your decision has already been made—it violates a boundary stone, so it is not a good fit for you. If you are offered a promotion that requires you to work deep into the night returning calls and emails, then the decision is already made because you erected a boundary stone.
If you are like me, you did not plan to be as busy as you were. You always intended more family time. You always wanted to prioritize your faith walk, your rest, and your physical health. You simply added a few little things periodically until there was no longer margin.
My personal goal and pastoral prayer is that we learn from our past and lean on this corrective season. How about you? How will you change your lifestyle moving forward after the pandemic has cleared and life begins to accelerate? I pray that your boundary stones will serve you well.
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