Finally, it has happened, my son’s school closed for two weeks.

Then I received an announcement that the school will offer online classes. I thought this pandemic affected only other countries and other regions, but now I have felt the impact, the virus’ societal effect has finally reached me on a personal level.  This pandemic has affected so many families worldwide.

Now I have directly experienced the schools’ closure, saw the empty shelves in the markets, and the most startling of all I witnessed this sense of panic and fear sweep over several of our church members. Whenever people were contacted me asking, “What should we do?” I asked for God’s wisdom on how to guide church members and help them so that they could spend this period of shut down in the right way.

I. Pray to God for a peaceful heart-based on faith and His love

I noticed that several of our church members were in panic while they were following the news from certain sources such as Youtube. But whenever I noticed that I prayed to God that he would not let us fall into fear, rather let us have the assurance of salvation and security of God’s love and care. And I prayed for them to receive heavenly peace.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

I am not saying that you need to close your eyes and ears and ignore what is happening outside. We do need to know what is happening outside clearly and need to pray for it. But we don’t need to be so afraid that we cannot do anything but just stay at home and follow the news about the virus. Please do not waste all of your precious time watching only the news and videos about covid19. And please when you do follow the news, get the right information from reliable sources such as major news companies and relevant government organizations. Some YouTubers and low-level media try their best to catch the audience, so their contents tend to be more exaggerated or sensational. People get threatened by those contents and they got overwhelmed by it.

If we are completely overcome by fear, this is not from the work of the Holy Spirit. Please pray to God that you can have firm faith, peace, and courage in this kind of situation. Please believe that God is leading us with his love and care always.

Remember our Lord Jesus who walked on the raging sea and calmed the storm before his disciples (Matt. 8:23-27; 14:22-33). Furthermore please pray that you can live your everyday life with longing for his kingdom and righteousness.

II. Do your best with what you can do

Follow the church guidelines well about services and faith-related activities and remember that no one can hinder us to give worship to God through services and try your best to give service wherever you are.

Please pray for your country and the regional government and listen well when they give relevant guidelines. The authorities that exist have been established by God and God is taking care of us through them. (Rom. 13:1, 1Pe. 2:13-14) We could see that they are trying their best to care and support us with various services so we need to also pray for them, too.

At home, make sure to teach and guide your children well on how to maintain good hygiene. While your kids are spending more time at home you could plan house cleaning as a home activity with kids. You may discover while cleaning that funky smell was actually your sons sweaty sock under the bed together with the dust.

Try to eat nutritious food since you cannot go to McDonald’s and use this time to teach kids how nutritious foods can boost their immune system and form a great shield to protect them from the virus. You could exercise with your kids with home physical activities and have a fun time with them.

III. If you cannot avoid, enjoy it.

You might be experiencing more stress as a parent now that your kids are suddenly at home for several weeks. Further, unorganized schedules, unexpected situations, piled up tasks from your work will seem to keep piling on the stress. And, the hard part is that you cannot avoid many of these stressors.

I would like to suggest that both parents discuss and make a detailed schedule and plan so that you can reduce unwanted stress as much as possible and utilize this unexpected opportunity more meaningfully and joyfully. There are so many good resources and activity ideas online so you can refer to them for some creative ideas.

IV. Teach your kids the Bible and have family prayer time

Now that we need to be with kids more at home, I would like to encourage parents to have Bible Studies and prayer time with your beloved ones. The wise man said, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting (Ecc. 7:2)”. I wish that our kids could learn that we humans are finite and weak and at any time we could face the end of our life. Our life comes and goes so we need to learn the meaning of our lives by knowing God and finding our identity and commission in Him. I hope that they could learn to listen to and follow God and remember the meaning of His kingdom. If you have friends or relatives who don’t know Jesus yet, take this time as a good chance to deliver the gospel and try to help lead them to receive salvation and eternal life.

The psalmist confessed that God is good God and what he does is good (Psalm 119:68). Sometimes we may be shaken by the onset of such a terrible virus, but God is controlling everything under his sovereignty and authority and in the end, will reveal his goodness. Please teach your children to know this and have faith in this.

V. Closing

Once again I could realize these days that we cannot live without God. The one who controls our lives is not a virus but God who created and rules over everything. I wish that all our precious faith and family churches can be reminded again of our commission and rely on God through this time. And I pray that we can give thanks to God once again for his loving and unceasing care and compassion through his son upon us.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32