The storm blew in with a mighty fury. There was no NOAA weather warning. The weather app on my phone told me there was only a 30% chance of rain overnight. But it came. The first sound was the thump of a hailstone on the south porch. My hubby and I were in bed, and he got up to investigate the sound. When he saw the hail pounding on the north windows, he hollered for me to get the children out of the bedrooms and away from the windows. I swooped the baby up in my left arm and rounded the corner for the older two’s children’s room.
Only by the grace of God, they had woken up and were headed toward their door. Just after I had pulled them into the hallway, their windows shattered all over the bed where they had been sleeping just moments before. I gathered the children on my lap, and we huddled in the corner while the storm raged around us, and we marveled at the strength of the storm.
Sometimes the storms of life are like that. They come out of nowhere and hit with fury. Maybe it is a literal storm like ours that leaves everything in your life in chaos. Maybe it is your husband getting laid off at work. Or a devastating diagnosis. Or a betrayal by someone close to you. Or an unwanted move. Or the death of a loved one. Or____________. You can fill in the black with your own storm.
Storms like this have a way of rocking us to the core. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned about storms during this storm recovery stage.
- Storms have a way of taking us back to the just the basics.
No longer was I trying new recipes or cooking fancy food. Instead, I focused on just providing basic nourishment to my family. Rather than an elaborate morning routine, I considered it a win if I unloaded the dishwasher, ran a load of laundry, and did our morning Bible time with the children.
If you are going through a storm right now, give yourself grace. Instead of running raggedly in fifty different directions trying to keep up with all your responsibilities and opportunities, it can be helpful to scale back to only the basic necessities and let a few things go for a season.
- Storms have a way of exposing our true hearts.
How we react in the middle of the storm tells a great deal about the condition of our hearts. When the storms of life come your way, do you react with peace, joy, and contentment; do you react with rage, bitterness, and blame?
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. ~Luke 6:45
- Storms have a way of realigning our priorities.
I am a list person. Daily to-do lists, future project lists, blog post idea lists. I have planner just so I can keep all my lists in one place. When the storm hit, all the lists that had been high priorities got pushed to the side, and a new list was created. One that included items like “clean up glass in the bathtub, rip out carpet, and complete personal property inventory.”
If we continue to try to accomplish everything on every list while we are in the midst of a storm, we will end up exhausted and defeated. In this season, it is helpful to look at what is the current top priority and tackle that.
- Storms have a way of revealing our need for others.
I have trouble asking for help. There is a part of me that is still like my little ones who insist “I do it myself.” I get caught up in the thought that if I try hard enough for long enough I can do whatever it is that needs to be done. Then came a storm, and I found myself calling others for help. From calling my parents to help seal up the house the night of the storm, to calling a friend to watch the littles while I clean up the glass, to talking to the manager at the hardware store about the best options for repair, Not to mention all the leaning on my husband that I have done. We don’t have to face life’s storms alone. Look around you and be willing to accept help or even ask for it.
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
What about you? What have you learned from the storms you have faced?
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