Day 2…Brave Moms, brave kids…reflections and give-away!!!!

I’m so glad you stopped by again today…so have a sit because I have something to tell you.

If you just stopped by for the first time, we are in the process of looking at the book Brave Moms, brave kids by Lee Nienhuis which includes a give-away of a copy on Monday <3

I have not a clue what I am doing with social media and getting these messages out to whoever might be encouraged or blessed by them. But I do know that you all are the ones who help more people connect with the messages here. Which is why all of us who are trying to spread our message through blogging need you to play the game with us on social media.

That being said – it would seem many of you dear people who are on Facebook DID like the post yesterday but unless you actually give the thumbs up on the actual Facebook page…I don’t know who you are….I know…such a pain…I couldn’t agree more.

I will give double entries today for anyone who does that, because I will assume you also liked yesterday…pretty sweet deal, right?

So if you want to enter for this, I need you to:

<3 Let me know you liked it by leaving a comment here (and I am NOT posting them unless you give me the ok!!!!)

….but MORE helpful would be if you would….

• Comment/share/like the post as it appears on Journey Onward Facebook page
• Follow/like Journey Onward on Facebook
• Invite your friends to like/follow Journey Onward 

OK….we are done with that and on to the message for today!! Whew!!! Sorry but I don’t want you think you are entering and I have no idea who you are…whoops…I promised the message….

so here it is…

In the early chapters of the book, Lee addresses the purpose and nature of fear.

She points out that “fear” is something God gave us, quite generously, as a gift. Godly fear is what draws us to Him and allows us to recognize God’s Holiness and Worthiness over us. Not to put us down but to be in right relationship with Him.

He is GOD….I wish I could make that bigger font and bolder print but I can’t or at least don’t know how with the tools I have even using an amazing website and keyboard and computer and that is just IT!!

Even in the things that are right at my fingertips, I have such limited understanding … and if I let myself stop for a minute and lift my eyes above what I THINK I can manage…and realize the hugeness of what I have absolutely no control over and then I let myself ponder

G.O.D.

I am filled with awe and gap-jawed terror…not because He will harm me but because He is SOOOOOOOOOO very

SOVEREIGN

over all of it.

And that feeling that takes my breath away is godly FEAR.

But sin has twisted fear and Lee likens it to a powerful weapon that was designed to bring good and has been placed in the wrong hands.

It’s power is not diminished, but in the hands of our enemy…it wreaks havoc and brings chaos in the exact proportions to what God intended for our good.

She writes about several results of this perversion of God’s gift of “fear”

<3 Fear causes us to shrink hide and shrink back

<3 Fear causes us to make hasty decisions

<3 Fear disorients us

<3 Fear makes disobedience seem permissible

<3 Fear enslaves us

from pages 29-38 Brave Moms, brave kids

I can relate to all of those things as I have seen myself allow unholy fear to overpower God’s truth in my life.

Just this morning I was using one of my old tattered prayer books and the prayer was for God to fulfill His purposes in my life.

In the margin was a notation about a conversation with Russ and the way God seemed to be placing a call on my life to write. How Russ confirmed that call and a prayer for God to lead me in following through.

The date?

2006.

Twelve years ago.

I look back over those twelve years, and I see glimpses of brave but I also see the past years marred by an ocean of fear.

Checking that against the list above…

yes…

I recognize all of those characteristics in my actions,  because I have allowed ungodly F.E.A.R. to be bigger than my God.

I can honestly say that because I have not applied FAITH to my fear…I have often tried to hide, made hasty decisions, felt disoriented, disobeyed and called it okay…I have been enslaved by fear…when God says I have been set free.

The call to write and put my thoughts and heart out there for an unknown public to read SHOULD be scary…but knowing it is a call on my life from my God….THAT should drive me towards Him in greater faith and cause me to tremble in FEAR of NOT following through, NOT giving voice to the words He would speak through me. NOT fulfilling His plans and purposes in my life…THAT  is the fear that should drive me forward.

I think that is one of the biggest takeaways of this book.

I want our children and our grandchildren, the spiritual sons and daughters the Lord has blessed me to love, the people who stop by here from time to time and read the thoughts God lays on my heart…

I want us all to be BRAVE.

I want our kiddos…and our grands…Russ and all of YOU to be more afraid of missing God than what might happen if we follow Him with everything in us even to the far ends of the earth or into the places and circumstances we are the most afraid of.

But I can’t expect others to be brave, if I am cowering in the corner.

Lee’s book challenges us to walk by FAITH.

To be brave, even when our knees are knocking and we want to run the other way.

We can be brave because (remember this from yesterday???) our confidence is not in US…but in HIM!!!

Ok dears..that’s it for today.

Strap on your armor and don’t forget to figure out how to let me know YOU want to be entered for your own copy of this book to keep for yourself or give to someone else.

Group hug, high five and I will see your brave beautiful face back here tomorrow!