I believe that God has a purpose in everything we experience in our lives. There are lessons to be learned in the joyous seasons we experience, but there are also lessons that require us to travel a path of difficulty and heartbreak as he molds and shapes us into the very best version of ourselves.
As I have thought about covid19 and the impact it has had on all our lives already and now we are faced with the holidays without our families. I am sure it feels sad to think of missing our loved ones. I know it does for me. I have Four beautiful grandchildren that are 1,700 miles away from me. The youngest was only two months old when I moved. I want so much for it to be safe to visit them again.
I watched a conference last night from Cleveland Clinic asking us to only celebrate the holidays with our family members living in our homes because of the high numbers currently hospitalized. They fear if people do not observe this request and have larger holiday gatherings that the hospitals will be overwhelmed, run out of beds and not be able to keep up.
Heavenly Father created the world and everything in it. He could just speak and the world and everyone in it would be healed. So why doesn’t he? There must be a reason we are going through this.
As I have prayed and pondered this question, these are some of the thoughts that have come to my mind.
There was a study done at Stanford University in 1970. The purpose of the study was to understand when the control of delayed gratification, the ability to wait to obtain something that one wants, develops in children. Most of the research conducted during that time was done with delayed rewards in areas such as time perspective and the delay of rewards.
The children were put in a room and given one marshmallow. They were told that the person giving them the marshmallow would be leaving. If they ate the marshmallow that was all they got, but if they waited for the person to return, they got to eat the original marshmallow and would be given one more. It is fun to watch the differences between the children and their different choices. As I was thinking about this experiment the thought came to me that maybe this is one of the things that Heavenly Father is trying to teach us.
We can gather with our families now and enjoy the holidays with them, or we can do as we have been asked and wait for those big gatherings that brought us so much joy. Our reward is this will help covid be controlled much sooner so that life can become more normal, allowing us to be close to family and friends on a permanent basis. In some cases, it could even save lives, allowing us to be close to those we love for many years to come.
I am sure there are many individual lessons that God is teaching us in all of this. In my mind I believe this is one of them. Our world has become one of instant gratification. In generations past our parent and grandparents had to save for the things they wanted in life. Today it seems that people think they need everything right now.
I invite you to pray and ponder what you can learn from your challenges in these difficult times. I am so grateful my Heavenly Father loves me enough to watch me go through challenges in my life that make me a better person.
Keep smiling and stay safe !!!
My Own Little Corner 