One of the most recent brave things I did was to speak in front of our women’s group at our annual retreat. Our verse was Josh 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” The platform for my talk was Bravery in the small things.
The practical things. Every day things. The things that to me, and maybe even to others, may seem small compared to battling a life threatening illness or the loss of a loved one.
But nonetheless, I had a real struggle with getting through the day to day challenges. Going to work. Getting the kids ready. Planning dinner. (I know. I know. Hold back the eye rolls.) This list doesn’t seem like much valiancy is required. But when the thought of getting out of bed to do such tasks seemed more than I could bear and I wanted to go in to full blown toddler tantrum mode, something was up. And I am not talking about being hormonal. Or depressed. Or maybe I am? But for me, I was really struggling with where my life was going and how to get to the next step. I couldn’t see past the current day. I couldn’t dream about tomorrow.
Until I was introduced to a Passion Planner. And taking time to do a quick “self-interview,” I was encouraged to figure out what I wanted to change in the next 3 months…1 year…3 years, etc. Suddenly the cloud over my head lifted. The weights came off. The hallelujah chorus resounded. It was like a light bulb came on and I became excited to tackle what seemed like a mountainous challenge. Hmmm…Plan my life? Challenge accepted! I watched videos on planning. I bought highlighters and stickers and cool pens. I.WAS.READY!
So what I mean to say is that to help overcome some fear obstacles in my life, I chose Bravery in the form of practical steps. Whether it was fear over a project at work or giving a talk or how we were going to manage after my husband’s team at work was eliminated, I learned how to look that fear square in the face, stick my tongue out, and say “I got this.”
