Do you guys have "life verses"? I didn't hear about them until I was well into my adult years. In case you're unfamiliar with the term, a "life verse" is one that God reveals to you as so strongly pertinent and meaningful to you that it kind of becomes your "theme verse", so to speak. It's a verse that you will carry with you your whole life. Some verses may end up being more "life phase verses" and that's OK, too. It's all a gift.
Somewhere along the line, I came across a verse that hit me right between the eyes with such a huge amount of comfort that it has become one of my life verses. It is Psalm 59:10b in the New American Standard (NASB)
"My God in His lovingkindness will meet me."
In that little verse - half a verse, really - I hear the echoes of some other verses in the Bible. Verses that speak of God's intimate knowledge of us, His tender compassion on our weaknesses, His love for us, and His humility in loving us and wanting us close to Him.
. "For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust." ~ Psalm 103:14
. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." ~ Romans 8:1
. "But the very hairs of your head are numbered." ~ Matthew 10:30
. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." ~ John 3:16
. "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" ~ Philippians 2:8
. "You have taken account of my wanderings, put my tears in a bottle; are they not in Your book?" ~ Psalm 58:8
. "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" ~ Psalm 139:17
. All of Psalm 139 really.
There's lots more, I'm sure, but these are just a few.
My God in His lovingkindness will meet me.
What this verse says to me is that God will meet me right where I am. As regards to my Christian maturity, He isn't standing on the other side of a chasm, chastising me for being on the wrong side, curtly telling me "You're SUPPOSED to be over HERE! Get over HERE!" No, the God of the universe will actually meet me where I am. He longs to take me by the hand and lead me to where I'm supposed to be. It says to me that I can meet Him, face to face so to speak, in prayer without first having to get myself right, without moving even. And truly, that's all I can bring to Him...my honest position, my true reality, my real heart. It's all I can give Him to work with. And frankly, that's all He can work with. What He can't work with is my denial, my avoidance, and facades. This verse offers great comfort to me that God wants to meet me right where I am, even if that place is so wrong, so confused, or so messed up.
Your God in His lovingkindness will meet you.
Isn't it beautiful how some verses are written in the first person, so that we have the joy of reading it exactly as it is and applying it so personally to ourselves. No translation required, no changing "you" to "me"...it's just right there...as-is. I think God planned some verses that way. That's why I love the Psalms. They are first person and they are so real.
Say the verse to yourself, just as it's written in the first person. And know that it's true.
My God in His lovingkindness will meet me.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
A Prescription For Fear, In A Nutshell
I've written in the sidebar that I think the antidote to fear is trusting God. But how does that start? Really start? It's been a pretty big ball of wax for this fearful heart.
Allow me ask you a couple questions.
What is your perception of God? Or better, how do you picture Him looking at you?
Is He standing there with His arms crossed, forever disappointed in you? Is He perpetually shaking His head declaring "not good enough" at you? Or is He distracted maybe, focusing off elsewhere on the "better" Christians, those more mature, faithful, and serving?
Do you know that He delights in you? Yes, you. Do you know that He thinks of you? Do you know, in your experience, that He in on your side? Do you know His love for specifically you?
I believe that the place to start when addressing fear issues is: God's love.
1 John 4:18 says:
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love."
Perfect love casts out fear. There is no perfect love except God's love for us. If we are afraid, then we don't know His love. Oh, we know some of His love. But we are not perfected in love.
Think about what perfect love is. It is absolutely unconditional. It is always constant. It always desires the utmost best for us. It never wavers for even a split second. With that kind of love, what is there to be afraid of? If I really understood God's goodness and His love for me, I wouldn't struggle with crippling fear issues. Clearly, I am not perfected in love.
So...in my journey, God's love is the starting point. I remember one day sitting in church. I had recently become aware of much dysfunction in my life and I'd been going to counseling and some wonderful groups the church offered. I had been challenged to believe God's love for me in ways that I'd never dared think of before. One day sitting it church something hit me. I realized that all my Christian life, what I had really believed was that God loved me merely as a part of the general "world" that He "so loved." I felt like I was just thrown in there with "the world" and He had to love me... for salvation. But when it came to Everyday Me, that was a different story. When I really looked at my heart and my fear and my behavior, I realized I did NOT believe He loved me or accepted me. It was as if He loved me unto salvation and then said, "OK, now you've got to measure up to earn My daily love." (Oh you foolish Galatians! Gal. 3:1-3)
Suddenly that day I understood how I had been perceiving God's love. I'm a visual person so I often grasp things through imagery. I saw my previous view of God's love as if it was a blanket over all of us. Spread out flat it sort of hovered over the collective us. I caught a new glimpse of God's love that day. It was as if God's love was separate blankets covering each individual's specific shape as a person. God's love is specific. I saw for the first time that God loves specifically, exactly and precisely me. God loves specifically you. And all that is specific about you He loves.
But in order to cast out fear, God's perfect love has to be believed. And trusted.
THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY to drive out fear from our lives IS A QUEST, a quest to know and believe God's love, and to experience it. Believing and trusting His love for us will drive out our fear. Now that sounds like good news!
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened with power
through His Spirit in the inner man;
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,
and that you,
being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend
with all the saints
what is the breadth,
and length,
and height,
and depth,
and to KNOW the love of Christ
which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
~ Ephesians 3:14-19
Allow me ask you a couple questions.
What is your perception of God? Or better, how do you picture Him looking at you?
Is He standing there with His arms crossed, forever disappointed in you? Is He perpetually shaking His head declaring "not good enough" at you? Or is He distracted maybe, focusing off elsewhere on the "better" Christians, those more mature, faithful, and serving?
Do you know that He delights in you? Yes, you. Do you know that He thinks of you? Do you know, in your experience, that He in on your side? Do you know His love for specifically you?
I believe that the place to start when addressing fear issues is: God's love.
1 John 4:18 says:
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love."
Perfect love casts out fear. There is no perfect love except God's love for us. If we are afraid, then we don't know His love. Oh, we know some of His love. But we are not perfected in love.
Think about what perfect love is. It is absolutely unconditional. It is always constant. It always desires the utmost best for us. It never wavers for even a split second. With that kind of love, what is there to be afraid of? If I really understood God's goodness and His love for me, I wouldn't struggle with crippling fear issues. Clearly, I am not perfected in love.
So...in my journey, God's love is the starting point. I remember one day sitting in church. I had recently become aware of much dysfunction in my life and I'd been going to counseling and some wonderful groups the church offered. I had been challenged to believe God's love for me in ways that I'd never dared think of before. One day sitting it church something hit me. I realized that all my Christian life, what I had really believed was that God loved me merely as a part of the general "world" that He "so loved." I felt like I was just thrown in there with "the world" and He had to love me... for salvation. But when it came to Everyday Me, that was a different story. When I really looked at my heart and my fear and my behavior, I realized I did NOT believe He loved me or accepted me. It was as if He loved me unto salvation and then said, "OK, now you've got to measure up to earn My daily love." (Oh you foolish Galatians! Gal. 3:1-3)
Suddenly that day I understood how I had been perceiving God's love. I'm a visual person so I often grasp things through imagery. I saw my previous view of God's love as if it was a blanket over all of us. Spread out flat it sort of hovered over the collective us. I caught a new glimpse of God's love that day. It was as if God's love was separate blankets covering each individual's specific shape as a person. God's love is specific. I saw for the first time that God loves specifically, exactly and precisely me. God loves specifically you. And all that is specific about you He loves.
But in order to cast out fear, God's perfect love has to be believed. And trusted.
THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY to drive out fear from our lives IS A QUEST, a quest to know and believe God's love, and to experience it. Believing and trusting His love for us will drive out our fear. Now that sounds like good news!
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened with power
through His Spirit in the inner man;
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,
and that you,
being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend
with all the saints
what is the breadth,
and length,
and height,
and depth,
and to KNOW the love of Christ
which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
~ Ephesians 3:14-19
Monday, June 28, 2010
My Fear Story
I'm thinking if you're a fearful Christian and have wandered your way onto this new blog, what you probably want is some comfort, understanding, and encouragement. You want to know you're not alone. So, I think I'll tell you a little bit about myself and my fear story.
We're all born with our personalities, right? I am an artistic, introspective type. And I think I always had a greater propensity for fear and timidity than many other folks. Some of us are just like that. My mom used to tell me I was so shy as a little girl that I'd hide behind her legs when someone new was around. I have distinct memories of being really uncomfortable with some people, decent people I realize now, but they were new and therefore scary to me.
My little life went on as all of ours do, and bumps and hurts happened. Some were of the ordinary variety and some of a larger sort. I think my fear capacity began to enlarge pretty much right away. Trying to ice skate on my own at 3 or 4 years old and landing flat on my forehead on the hard ice was one of the first events that taught me to be afraid of trying things. The normal getting hurt by older brothers, falling down the stairs...such things worked their way into my fear prone heart. Life went on and bigger knocks happened. Some I can only partially remember. Which probably means they're pretty significant.
You know, when we're growing up, we don't know anything. We don't know how this life is supposed to work. If we get hurt, we don't know how to deal with it. We don't have the tools to work through such things in a healthy way on our own. If our parents aren't there to help us process through some pain or wound in life, we don't have a clue what to do with it. And reality is such that even the best parents can't be with you for every experience that might need working through. So when we're on our own we do the best our little minds and hearts can come up with. For me, I went inside myself, didn't tell anyone what hurt me and kept all my pains hidden. With each passing year, my heart became more guarded and less accessible, even to myself.
So, add together a fear prone personality, life's painful events, and not having a clue how to properly deal with those hurts. What do you get? A little girl growing up to be driven by fear.
Early on in my childhood, I began to have nightmares and had such exaggerated fear at night that I often ended up in my parents' bed. I hated the night. I hated being alone in my room. It took me forever to fall asleep and the worst was knowing eventually that I was the only one still awake. I felt so unprotected and unsafe. I couldn't have put those words to it then; all I knew was that I was afraid. If I would wake up in the middle of the night, I would get so afraid that I would eventually end up hightailing it down the hall and then slowly creeping in between my parents in their bed. It's embarrassing to admit that this wasn't just my behavior as a 6 year old. No, it happened well beyond the understandable time for such things.
As I grew into my teen and college years, I thought I'd gotten a pretty good handle on fear. I didn't seem to be troubled by any out-of-the-ordinary fears. I didn't see that I had built a stone wall and a mote around my heart in an effort to self protect - which was clearly an act of fear and remains today one of my biggest issues. (I need to keep reading and re-reading Bo's Cafe
!)
My adulthood fears have shown themselves in surprising ways. Though I am not troubled by some things that others are afraid of, my saying for several years was: "You name it, I'm afraid of it!" I've learned that my first reaction to most things is fear.
We'd been married a year and we wanted to stop renting and buy a house. I wanted a house of our own. But I was scared.
I absolutely love dogs. "Hey, now that we have a house, let's get a dog!" I was scared.
Ever since I was a teenager I've wanted to live in the country. My husband, too. Nine years into our life together, we started to pursue that dream. I was scared.
See? I'm even afraid of the very things I totally and utterly want! What's up with that?! I'm learning to give these first reaction type of fears no credence. If not immediately then eventually.
OK...well, I'm running out of steam tonight. I just wanted to open up and share a little bit about my fear story with you all. So you can know that I'm right there with you, and so you can know that my heart is with you. In this blog, I'll be sharing some of the things I've learned about fear and how it affects me and others around me. I also want to share lots of scripture because it is God's word to us meant for encouragement, strength and hope.
We're all born with our personalities, right? I am an artistic, introspective type. And I think I always had a greater propensity for fear and timidity than many other folks. Some of us are just like that. My mom used to tell me I was so shy as a little girl that I'd hide behind her legs when someone new was around. I have distinct memories of being really uncomfortable with some people, decent people I realize now, but they were new and therefore scary to me.
My little life went on as all of ours do, and bumps and hurts happened. Some were of the ordinary variety and some of a larger sort. I think my fear capacity began to enlarge pretty much right away. Trying to ice skate on my own at 3 or 4 years old and landing flat on my forehead on the hard ice was one of the first events that taught me to be afraid of trying things. The normal getting hurt by older brothers, falling down the stairs...such things worked their way into my fear prone heart. Life went on and bigger knocks happened. Some I can only partially remember. Which probably means they're pretty significant.
You know, when we're growing up, we don't know anything. We don't know how this life is supposed to work. If we get hurt, we don't know how to deal with it. We don't have the tools to work through such things in a healthy way on our own. If our parents aren't there to help us process through some pain or wound in life, we don't have a clue what to do with it. And reality is such that even the best parents can't be with you for every experience that might need working through. So when we're on our own we do the best our little minds and hearts can come up with. For me, I went inside myself, didn't tell anyone what hurt me and kept all my pains hidden. With each passing year, my heart became more guarded and less accessible, even to myself.
So, add together a fear prone personality, life's painful events, and not having a clue how to properly deal with those hurts. What do you get? A little girl growing up to be driven by fear.
Early on in my childhood, I began to have nightmares and had such exaggerated fear at night that I often ended up in my parents' bed. I hated the night. I hated being alone in my room. It took me forever to fall asleep and the worst was knowing eventually that I was the only one still awake. I felt so unprotected and unsafe. I couldn't have put those words to it then; all I knew was that I was afraid. If I would wake up in the middle of the night, I would get so afraid that I would eventually end up hightailing it down the hall and then slowly creeping in between my parents in their bed. It's embarrassing to admit that this wasn't just my behavior as a 6 year old. No, it happened well beyond the understandable time for such things.
As I grew into my teen and college years, I thought I'd gotten a pretty good handle on fear. I didn't seem to be troubled by any out-of-the-ordinary fears. I didn't see that I had built a stone wall and a mote around my heart in an effort to self protect - which was clearly an act of fear and remains today one of my biggest issues. (I need to keep reading and re-reading Bo's Cafe
!)My adulthood fears have shown themselves in surprising ways. Though I am not troubled by some things that others are afraid of, my saying for several years was: "You name it, I'm afraid of it!" I've learned that my first reaction to most things is fear.
We'd been married a year and we wanted to stop renting and buy a house. I wanted a house of our own. But I was scared.
I absolutely love dogs. "Hey, now that we have a house, let's get a dog!" I was scared.
Ever since I was a teenager I've wanted to live in the country. My husband, too. Nine years into our life together, we started to pursue that dream. I was scared.
See? I'm even afraid of the very things I totally and utterly want! What's up with that?! I'm learning to give these first reaction type of fears no credence. If not immediately then eventually.
OK...well, I'm running out of steam tonight. I just wanted to open up and share a little bit about my fear story with you all. So you can know that I'm right there with you, and so you can know that my heart is with you. In this blog, I'll be sharing some of the things I've learned about fear and how it affects me and others around me. I also want to share lots of scripture because it is God's word to us meant for encouragement, strength and hope.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Scriptures
I plan to post scriptures in the side bar. I don't know if I'll manage to put a fresh one up every day but that would be ideal. I'll collect them all in this post, adding to it as I refresh the sidebar with new scriptures. The sidebar will have a link to this post.
As time goes on this post will become filled with scriptures that I hope will encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, quicken your hope, and sometimes - as with the Psalms - give you a comfort that comes from hearing the words of your own heart expressed by another.
----------------------
"Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." ~ Isaiah 41:10
"But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge." ~ Psalm 73:28
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love." ~ 1 John 4:18
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to KNOW the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." ~ Ephesians 3:14-19
"My God in His lovingkindness will meet me." ~ Pslam 59:10b
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." ~ James 4:8
"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit." ~ Psalm 34:18
I run to You, God. I run for dear life." ~ Psalm 31:1 MSG
"Be to me a rock of strength, a stronghold to save me." ~ Psalm 31:2
"For You are my strength." ~ Psalm 31:4b
Be my safe leader, be my true mountain guide. Free me from hidden traps; I want to hide in You." ~ Psalm 31:3 MSG
"You saw my pain, You disarmed my tormentors" ~ Psalm 31:7 MSG
"...Terror on every side....But as for me,
I trust in You, O Lord,
I say, "You are my God."
My times are in Your hand." ~ Psalm 31: 13-15a
"Hour by hour I place my days in Your hand,
safe from the hands out to get me." ~ Psalm 31:15 MSG
"All my bones will say, 'Lord, who is like You, who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, and the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?'" ~ Psalm 35:10
"You enlarge my steps under me and my feet have not slipped." ~ Psalm 18:36
As time goes on this post will become filled with scriptures that I hope will encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, quicken your hope, and sometimes - as with the Psalms - give you a comfort that comes from hearing the words of your own heart expressed by another.
----------------------
"Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." ~ Isaiah 41:10
"But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge." ~ Psalm 73:28
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love." ~ 1 John 4:18
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to KNOW the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." ~ Ephesians 3:14-19
"My God in His lovingkindness will meet me." ~ Pslam 59:10b
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." ~ James 4:8
"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit." ~ Psalm 34:18
I run to You, God. I run for dear life." ~ Psalm 31:1 MSG
"Be to me a rock of strength, a stronghold to save me." ~ Psalm 31:2
"For You are my strength." ~ Psalm 31:4b
Be my safe leader, be my true mountain guide. Free me from hidden traps; I want to hide in You." ~ Psalm 31:3 MSG
"You saw my pain, You disarmed my tormentors" ~ Psalm 31:7 MSG
"...Terror on every side....But as for me,
I trust in You, O Lord,
I say, "You are my God."
My times are in Your hand." ~ Psalm 31: 13-15a
"Hour by hour I place my days in Your hand,
safe from the hands out to get me." ~ Psalm 31:15 MSG
"All my bones will say, 'Lord, who is like You, who delivers the afflicted from him who is too strong for him, and the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?'" ~ Psalm 35:10
"You enlarge my steps under me and my feet have not slipped." ~ Psalm 18:36
Friday, June 25, 2010
Why This Blog
This is a blog for fearful Christians. Christians who are afraid. If you are not a Christian, or don't know for sure if you are, I invite you to stick around. We could all use a little company as we look at our fear.
I write about fear not because I'm an expert at being brave or choosing faith over fear. I don't write because I'm a counselor, or a pastor, or a psychologist, or have some other such declaration of authority. I write because I know fear. I write because God, throughout my whole life, has been patiently and lovingly committed to drawing me out of slavery to fear.
I write because I know there are others of you out there who are, to varying degrees, slaves to fear. I write because I believe you're like me in that you long for freedom. You long for the life you've been missing. You long for that abundant life Jesus came to give you. I write because enough is enough, we are tired of all that fear continues to cost us and all that we've missed because fear has robbed us. I write because, despite the fact that I still deal with fear, God has been working in me regarding the fear in my life.
One of the ways God teaches me is through other people's lives. I learn from other people's stories. I believe we are to share our stories with each other. So I believe God can use the story and experiences of my personal journey from fear to faith, "from fear to eternity", to bless and encourage others. I write because of 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
The purpose and vision of this blog on fear is to strengthen the knees that are weak, which is for some reason how Hebrews 12:12 got locked into my brain, though it actually says, "Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble." It is to "Encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble, Say to those with anxious heart 'Take courage, fear not.'" (Isaiah 35:3-4a). It is my desire to comfort, encourage, instill hope and spur you to press on in your personal journey From Fear to Eternity.
I write about fear not because I'm an expert at being brave or choosing faith over fear. I don't write because I'm a counselor, or a pastor, or a psychologist, or have some other such declaration of authority. I write because I know fear. I write because God, throughout my whole life, has been patiently and lovingly committed to drawing me out of slavery to fear.
I write because I know there are others of you out there who are, to varying degrees, slaves to fear. I write because I believe you're like me in that you long for freedom. You long for the life you've been missing. You long for that abundant life Jesus came to give you. I write because enough is enough, we are tired of all that fear continues to cost us and all that we've missed because fear has robbed us. I write because, despite the fact that I still deal with fear, God has been working in me regarding the fear in my life.
One of the ways God teaches me is through other people's lives. I learn from other people's stories. I believe we are to share our stories with each other. So I believe God can use the story and experiences of my personal journey from fear to faith, "from fear to eternity", to bless and encourage others. I write because of 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
The purpose and vision of this blog on fear is to strengthen the knees that are weak, which is for some reason how Hebrews 12:12 got locked into my brain, though it actually says, "Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble." It is to "Encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble, Say to those with anxious heart 'Take courage, fear not.'" (Isaiah 35:3-4a). It is my desire to comfort, encourage, instill hope and spur you to press on in your personal journey From Fear to Eternity.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Welcome
Hi there! I'm just getting started - putting my foot in the Jordan, so to speak - with this blog. Sharing and writing about fear has been a desire of mine for many years. But I never knew what format it would take. I kept thinking writing had to be a formal publication. "I'm no expert! I'm no authority! I can't write a BOOK on fear!"
Then one day, driving 150 miles to a Women's Retreat, it hit me. A BLOG! Duh. A blog I can do.
And even though it has been swelling up in my heart for months to start this blog, still I procrastinated. I find it pretty darn funny that the biggest reason I have not dived in until now is that ... I was afraid. Fitting, huh? I felt God leading me into this project and I spent some time gathering notes, jotting down experiences and lessons learned, and gathering scriptures. But when it came time to getting on Blogger.com and actually clicking that little button that says Create Blog...I sorta looked the other way. "Just a little more preparation," I kept saying. "I'd like to have several posts written before I even create the blog." (Looking for security much?)
Finally, I heard God (not in an audible voice, but in my spirit) say, "Go! Start. Don't wait till you feel ready. Go!"
I hate to admit this, but it's been a couple months even from that point. But finally...here I am, doing it afraid. That's one of my favorite quotes: "Do it afraid." Joyce Myers says that.
So today, - to give you multiple metaphors - I'm diving in and stepping into the Jordan. I've started. Bear with me and please come back... I have a LOT of design work to do and I'm getting used to this new fangled eBlogger Design stuff.
I'm pretty sure I won't be up to speed for a little while but now that I'm "out there" I hope it will motivate me to tackle it head on and get 'er done!
Thanks for stopping by.
Then one day, driving 150 miles to a Women's Retreat, it hit me. A BLOG! Duh. A blog I can do.
And even though it has been swelling up in my heart for months to start this blog, still I procrastinated. I find it pretty darn funny that the biggest reason I have not dived in until now is that ... I was afraid. Fitting, huh? I felt God leading me into this project and I spent some time gathering notes, jotting down experiences and lessons learned, and gathering scriptures. But when it came time to getting on Blogger.com and actually clicking that little button that says Create Blog...I sorta looked the other way. "Just a little more preparation," I kept saying. "I'd like to have several posts written before I even create the blog." (Looking for security much?)
Finally, I heard God (not in an audible voice, but in my spirit) say, "Go! Start. Don't wait till you feel ready. Go!"
I hate to admit this, but it's been a couple months even from that point. But finally...here I am, doing it afraid. That's one of my favorite quotes: "Do it afraid." Joyce Myers says that.
So today, - to give you multiple metaphors - I'm diving in and stepping into the Jordan. I've started. Bear with me and please come back... I have a LOT of design work to do and I'm getting used to this new fangled eBlogger Design stuff.
I'm pretty sure I won't be up to speed for a little while but now that I'm "out there" I hope it will motivate me to tackle it head on and get 'er done!
Thanks for stopping by.
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