{"id":1483,"date":"2020-03-17T19:16:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2020-03-17T19:16:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:16:56","slug":"virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/03\/virus.html","title":{"rendered":"Virus!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The corona virus has blindsided us. We weren&#8217;t prepared for such a virus or its consequences. No one recognized its severity early on&#8230;but now they do. We all do.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday the Billy Graham Library held a book-signing for my new book, <em>Forgiving My Father, Forgiving Myself, An Invitation to the Miracle of Forgiveness.<\/em> So many dear folks came &#8211; I loved meeting them and hearing their Billy Graham stories.<\/p>\n<p>When I landed in Charlotte I had a headache and stopped by the sundries shop to get some Tylenol. As I was paying for it, the young man behind the counter said, &#8220;May I ask you a question.&#8221; I said, &#8220;yes.&#8221; He asked if I knew Billy Graham. I told him I had known him. Then I asked why he asked. He said, &#8220;You look like his daughter.&#8221; I smiled and told him, &#8220;I am his daughter.&#8221; He was so excited because he had wanted to meet my father for years. I assured him that he would meet him one day in heaven. <\/p>\n<p>I told him I was in Charlotte to do a book-signing at the Billy Graham Library the next day. He said he would come and bring his mother and daughter. Sure enough, he came and we were able to take photos. I introduced him to my sister, Gigi.<\/p>\n<p>What fun that is! God is good to me.<\/p>\n<p>Back to the virus&#8230;how grateful I am for the safeguards that have been put in place over the years to hold our national health systems in place and our financial systems in order. I know it seems like chaos but nothing like in times passed.<\/p>\n<p>I was gone for two weeks and flew multiple times. One flight was from Tampa to Charlotte. The airports were crowded with students trying to get home since their universities had closed. Not many businessmen were flying. I flew home on Sunday afternoon and the flight to Charlottesville was all but empty.<\/p>\n<p>My schedule has had to be reshuffled. What this has brought home to me is: priorities. What is important to me now. I think we all would do well to reprioritize our lives &#8211; what is really important?<\/p>\n<p>I did go to the grocery store this morning for a major buy. Since I had been gone for two weeks, I was low on just about everything fresh. And I wanted to have lots of soup makings. I live in an &#8220;Over 55&#8221; small housing community. Some of my neighbors are well over 55 and I checked on them to see if they needed something. I like to have soup on hand in the freezer. Most, if not all, have family nearby so are well cared for. And, of course, I have my two girls nearby. My youngest has a rare lung disease so we want to be sure she is protected. And her youngest son is compromised as well so, we will take heed to the precautions.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s pray for each other, our nation, our leaders&#8230;they look weary. But they stay up all hours in order to serve us and make sure we are protected. They loose sleep so we can sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The corona virus has blindsided us. We weren&#8217;t prepared for such a virus or its consequences. No one recognized its severity early on&#8230;but now they do. We all do. On Saturday the Billy Graham Library held a book-signing for my new book, Forgiving My Father, Forgiving Myself, An Invitation to the Miracle of Forgiveness. So&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[245,502,92,496,508,505,499,493],"class_list":["post-1483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-billy-graham-library","tag-charlotte","tag-prayer","tag-precautions","tag-priorities","tag-safeguards","tag-severity","tag-virus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Virus! - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/03\/virus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virus! - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The corona virus has blindsided us. We weren&#8217;t prepared for such a virus or its consequences. No one recognized its severity early on&#8230;but now they do. We all do. On Saturday the Billy Graham Library held a book-signing for my new book, Forgiving My Father, Forgiving Myself, An Invitation to the Miracle of Forgiveness. So&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/03\/virus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-17T19:16:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Virus! - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/03\/virus.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Virus! - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"The corona virus has blindsided us. We weren&#8217;t prepared for such a virus or its consequences. No one recognized its severity early on&#8230;but now they do. We all do. On Saturday the Billy Graham Library held a book-signing for my new book, Forgiving My Father, Forgiving Myself, An Invitation to the Miracle of Forgiveness. 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No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 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