It is a great joy to see see people thrive and stay happy in the tough times of their lives. There is an unexplained joy when you see the lips of people spread wide in smiles. Living in a post pandemic era since the COVID-19 lock-down, we have had to deal with the many things that came with the pandemic - economic, emotional, political, work, and educational breakdown amongst others. Now, living through all of these and smiling yet still is a really great deal.
Before we go too deep, I will like to inform you that today's article is more of a personal experience which I want you to learn from. Like I mentioned above, my constant lookout for joy on people's faces even in hard times started during the covid-19 lockdown. I noticed that a lot of families had a good share of the effects that came with the lockdown. Some families were broken, some grew stronger, some were able to scale through, some are still struggling to keep the family together. Of all these, my family had its fair share of the lock-down effect.
A quick background, I am from a family of 5, my dad, mom, I, and two younger brothers. In terms of behavior, we can say dad is the super nice and cool-headed one, my mom is also nice, can be cool-headed but does not tolerate nonsense (I hope you can imagine the combination). I would have loved to attach a picture of my family, but I don't think they will be cool with it.
During the lockdown, my mom had an issue with her younger sister, and they dragged it to the endpoint. Whew... Trust me, it was tough and we all felt it. My peace-loving dad who wanted everything to be fine then tried to see how to make things right and that caused a lot of bruises. My mom taught that he was not seeing what her sister is doing and the disobedience that she is trying to correct. She felt like dad was trying to spear and spoil her sister. It was a lot of confusion and it stopped being a thing between just my mom and aunt to being an issue between my parents.
For the very first time, my siblings and I saw our parents argue (for the records I am over 20 years but that day was the first time) it didn't only stop in an argument, but it continued as heat in the house. As the first child, I had to make sure to always let my brothers know that everything will be alright even when they can see what they see. This experience made me become a counselor and listening ear to both my dad and my mom at the same time as my siblings. Everyone had something to say and it started to take a tow me. I became sad, which is most unlike me.
One morning, another argument broke out. And for the first time, my immediate younger brother (the one that always proves to be strong hearted) looked at me and said with tears in his eyes "Sis, what are you going to do about this" the moment I saw him, I grew cold on my feet. I taught of all that I could do and at the same time, I could not think of anything thing to do. I was already breaking down. I didn't know what to do, all I could think of was to pray. Which I did (not like I had not been praying) it was a not-so-good season for my family. While praying, the Holy Spirit asked me to inform one of my parent's mentors which I did, and that made the whole thing reduce. I was continually praying for my family but I guess because I was the one that stood as a listening ear to everyone, it took a nice chunk of joy out of me. I was not happy and I was constantly bitter about the fact that my parents could not just work things out with each other. Sometimes I also hated Corona for keeping me at home at that time, I could have been in school and not have to face all that is happening but at the same time, I was thankful that I was there with my brothers.
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