In my interactions with friends and family lately, I\u2019ve been referring to this time of isolation as \u201cbeing in a cocoon\u201d. I sense that we are growing in our gratitude and being made over mentally in ways that are so good for us. I saw this on a friend\u2019s FB page yesterday. It confirmed what I had been thinking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTRAFFIC is gone, GAS is affordable, BILLS extended.
KIDS are at home with their FAMILIES.
PARENTS are home taking care of their CHILDREN.
FAST FOOD replaced by HOME COOKED MEALS.
Hectic SCHEDULES replaced by NAPS, REST, and RELAXATION.
The AIR seems CLEANER. The WORLD quieter.
PEOPLE are conscious about HYGIENE and HEALTH.
MONEY doesn’t seem to make the world go round any more.
We have TIME, finally, to STOP and SMELL the ROSES.
And lastly, We’ve become closer to THE MOST HIGH and more praising HIM every day of our LIVES. Yes, I want this to be over but there is some positive in this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eye opening for sure. I\u2019ve been through some painful seasons when it felt like I was in an uncomfortable cocoon. It seemed God had a deaf ear to my heart cries. The seasons of financial concerns, illnesses, disappointments, broken relationships, family deaths \u2013 including, my own precious husband\u2019s passing. I was in the cocoon during those times \u2013 going through what seemed to be personal death, but, God was using those seasons to instill in me hope, trust and belief that He was in control, and that He was creating a butterfly that could soar further and higher than I could have imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was in those dark seasons that my faith grew stronger. No question — the cocoon WAS painful. But were it not for that dark season and the changes made in me, I would have never known the joy, freedom and beauty of flying to such heights today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hold on, my beloved children and friends. Soon, we will be breaking out of these cocoons. Count on it — when we are free again, we will not be ashamed to dance in the rain, to celebrate each new day with the wonderment of a child, to laugh at ourselves, to value each other more than ever before, to look in the mirror and see LIFE being lived to its fullest again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon, this dark cocoon will be in our past. We\u2019ll realize that it was worth the stillness and death and preparation for the wings we were given to fly higher than we\u2019ve ever flown before. We\u2019ll soon break free from this isolation and we\u2019ll never take so much for granted ever again. Before long, we’ll be spreading our wings to fly and we’ll start flying AND dancing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.” Psalm 30:11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my interactions with friends and family lately, I\u2019ve been referring to this time of isolation as \u201cbeing in a cocoon\u201d. I sense that we are growing in our gratitude and being made over mentally in ways that are so good for us. I saw this on a friend\u2019s FB page yesterday. It confirmed what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16980,16982,16981],"tags":[2777,1210,1184,1187,1769,1188,3352,16979,991,38,39,16816,16977,16976,16978,2441,545,2524],"class_list":["post-12161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-butterfly","category-caterpillar","category-cocoon","tag-belief","tag-blog","tag-butterfly","tag-caterpillar","tag-christian","tag-cocoon","tag-death","tag-divine-preparation","tag-god-is-in-control","tag-gratitude","tag-hope","tag-isolation","tag-painful","tag-painful-season","tag-psalm3011","tag-stronger","tag-trust","tag-uncomfortable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12163,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12161\/revisions\/12163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}