Portrait of a young girl with her arm and fist up and the other arm on a hip in a superhero pose on white wall background

To Fear or Not to Fear

My oldest daughter wanted to go to an indoor adventure park for her 10th birthday. She jumped up and down about it for DAYS! [I wish I had a video of it to show you, it SO stinking cute! 🙂 ]

There were so many things to do, and because I’d never been before, it took me a while to get a handle on everything there was to try. She went up the climbing walls, crawled over hanging walls and hung from swinging ropes on the obstacle courses…she jumped on trampolines and slammed basketballs into a hoops. It was all pretty awesome.

The whole time we kept seeing kids swinging from the ceiling…not quite knowing where they were coming from or how to get there…but there was one thing she knew for sure, she wanted to try it. Or at least she THOUGHT she wanted to try it, lol…so, we found the tower she needed to climb up. She climbed all the way up with her older brother there with her…got her harness on and waited her turn. We waited to see her zip-line around the top of the building, but for some reason, she wasn’t coming. A little while into waiting, she appeared…but not at the top of the zip-line. There she was at the bottom of the tower walking toward us, a look of disappointment and sadness on her little birthday face.

“I can’t do it, I just can’t do it. It was too scary!”

She had tears in her eyes because she was struggling. She wanted to go on the zip-line that hung from the ceiling and went all the way around the park, but something was holding her back. Fear. I can’t say I blame her, fear is definitely something I’ve struggled with before too. So, I held her and told her she didn’t have to do the zip-line, it was her choice…but I knew she could do it.

Just a few days before, at church, she had learned a scripture in her class: Joshua 1:9 “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

You guys! …the scripture couldn’t have been any more perfect for that exact moment. I gently reminded her of the verse she learned at church, letting her know that in life fear will come up trying to hold her back. Her older brother had just finished going overhead…and she decided she wanted to try again.

She walked back up that tower, put on her harness and waited her turn. What an impact that scripture made!! She not only went once on that zip-line, she went 11 times!!! …She ran back up that tower to that zip-line over and over and over again with the hugest smile on her face. She was so proud of herself…and she was having the time of her life! Imagine what she could’ve missed had she decided to agree with fear!

Sometimes, as adults, we need gently reminded of the same things…

  1. The spirit of fear only has power over you if you let it.
  2. God’s Word gives you power over fear!
  3. You have to decide to trust God and his Word.
  4. And here’s a little extra tip: God’s ways are so much more amazing than the enemy’s!

What has fear been holding you back from?!

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self–discipline.

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