As moms and dads, it is easy to hide away in work, piles of laundry, and children’s activities and tantrums, but we are not meant to walk alone. We need each other. In 1944, after hiding Jews in her home, Corrie ten Boom was sentenced to prison camps and solitary confinement. After a month, she was finally allowed to leave her cell for a shower. Simply seeing other women’s faces filled her soul and she wrote in her inspirational book, “The Hiding Place”, “How rich is anyone who can simply see human faces! The shower too was glorious: warm clean water over my festering skin, streams of water through my matted hair.”
“How rich is anyone who can simply see human faces!” We need each other. If you are connected, great, but if not, reach out to others and create relationships. Make the time. With whom can you be transparent and open? Who encourages you? Find that person, and make the time to be “face to face” or “phone to phone” if s/he lives far from you. My best friend lives 16 hours away from me in Pensacola, but we do our best to talk and pray together weekly. We need each other.
More often, let’s turn technology that distracts off and turn connection on. If some of those closest to you live far away, let’s benefit from technology by FaceTiming or picking up the phone to connect. But when we are with our friends, spouses, and children, let’s talk face to face, and be interested to learn about those sitting right across from us.
Corrie ten Boom was in solitary confinement and not allowed to speak, but we have the daily gift of being able to speak with each other. Let’s heed her words and indulge in the freedom and richness of being “face to face”. Share this with a friend to remind them of this great gift we have at our fingertips.
Linsey Driskill 