By Rae Lynn DeAngelis
Over this past Christmas break, my husband and I contracted COVID and spent the next two weeks feeling anything but merry and bright. The good news is we now have natural immunity… at least for a little while.
Sickness has a way of causing us to self-reflect and reevaluate what’s most important in life. I guess that’s partially because we have so much time lying around without much else to do, but also, because everything else gets stripped away. When we had COVID, the simplest of things became difficult: breathing, sleeping, eating, and even focusing was challenging. My energy was so depleted that even getting up to go to the bathroom wore me out. A few days after not feeling well, I tried to get a shower. That was a mistake. My head began spinning and my stomach churned. I knew I was about to go down for the count so I immediately shut off the shower, wrapped myself in a towel, and flopped to the ground to avoid passing out.
There’s nothing quite like getting sick to make you appreciate your health. Honestly, we are both still fighting the remnants of fatigue and congestion (and we still can’t smell), but we are praising God that He gave us an immune system to help us fight off viruses and infections. Thank you, Jesus, for helping us get better!
Many people see the New Year as an opportunity to reset priorities, change behaviors, or adjust attitudes. For me personally, I’ve never found this practice particularly effective in creating any kind of lasting change in my life. I need a bit more motivation than the flip of a calendar year.
But guess what? My end of year illness was just the reset I needed to help me start the year off right. Here’s some great lessons and reminders God taught me over the past few weeks. I call it my “Great Reset”.
- Family is precious. Appreciate every moment you have together. We had to spend both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day without any of our family or friends. It was actually the first time we ever had to do that. So guess what we did? We dug out our home videos from when the kids were little and watched Christmases of years gone by. In doing so, it felt like we were with our family. I had actually been meaning to get them out to watch; being laid up gave us the perfect opportunity to do so. We were reminded of just how blessed we are to have our children. We will definitely appreciate future Christmas celebrations together so much more. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever…” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
- True friends are there when you need them. So many of our friends offered to pray for us and go to the store if there was anything we needed. They checked in on us regularly with texts and calls. It made us feel loved and appreciated. What a great reminder of how little things like that can make a difference in someone’s day. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).
- Your body is a gift from God. Don’t take your health for granted. Two weeks felt like such a long time to be sick. It felt like we were never going to get better. But we learned to better appreciate things we normally took for granted. Things like sleeping, eating, and even breathing unhindered. When things get taken away for a time, you learn to appreciate them all the more.
- Time is fleeting. Enjoy and appreciate each and every moment God gives you. We couldn’t do much of anything while we were sick except watch television and sleep. It felt like such a waste of time, but the truth is rest is exactly what our body needed to recover. “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:13-15).
- Gratitude is always the best attitude. Our time of sickness provided an opportunity for us to look for the small blessings and silver linings of our circumstances. Gerry and I were both on vacation the whole time we were sick, so we didn’t miss any work. Gerry and I were supposed to go to Florida for the winter, but felt uneasy about going. I prayed and asked God to stop us from going if we weren’t supposed to go. Two days later were sick. God answered our prayer. We didn’t get nearly as sick as some people we know, and we had plenty of supplies in our medicine cabinet to help us get and feel better. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
What about you? Has anything in 2021 given you better perspective or outlook for 2022? Spend some time in prayer and ask God to help you reset your focus on His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Lord, help me to keep readjusting my thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors to better align with you. Not just once a year, but the whole year through. Help me to make lasting positive change. I don’t want to be stagnant. I want to keep growing and changing into the woman you desire me to be. With your help, I can do all things. You are the Potter and I am the clay. Mold and shape me as you see fit. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and Redeemer. And may 2022 be the best year yet. Thank you, Lord, for answered prayer.
Looking for a way to connect with God daily? CLICK HERE to check out our new daily devotional: Living in Truth Mind, Body, Spirit.
