Annie's devotional today is about doing brave things even when you don't feel brave.
My friend Nickie is currently living this. She is running for a seat in the Georgia State House. Nickie does not come from a family of government leaders. Never has she been a member of local government. Never has she be "groomed" for such a position. But there she is, doing her best. Getting out there. Making her name, and her platform, known.
She is brave.
Last year one of my dearest friends, Denise, picked-up her family and moved cross-country. They knew no one. They had to start all over. But they did, and they still are. Every season is a new experience for these former Northeasterners. New jobs and communities. New schools and doctors. Sad Arizona winters without snow.
And Jen and Nikki, the former who has been sky-diving before, the latter who is making the plans and preparations now. Risking your life for a jump is ...something. They are brave.
All four of my friends did things which are or were risky. They require bravery. But regardless of how brave they may have felt at any moment leading up to their throwing their hat in the ring, driving away from all they knew, and jumping out of an airplane(!), the moment they did their thing, they did it brave.
On a daily basis, we can be brave by simply showing up.
By doing what we were created to do.
To live. And create. And have the freedom to be.
Annie wrote:
Be Brave: Think back on your life.
Journal about two or three moments you or someone else might label as "brave".
One of the earliest acts of bravery I can think of was in high school. For multiple summers, I worked and saved the money so that I could go to Europe with my school's German class. My family could not pay to send me. It was a financial issue, a saving-face issue (Dare I let on to my classmates that I am planning -and praying- to go with them to Germany? When they were absolutely likely to go and I was absolutely the underdog.), and it was an issue of reality. In reality, no one in my immediate family had ever left the area, much less, the country. Not one of us had ever been on an airplane.
But I did it. I raise my hand in class when Herr Knorr asked who was interested. I saved my money and submitted my interest letter. I did it all scared.
It was a similar experience when I applied to only one college. Only one. And I took my SATs only once. Once. I was accepted but I was under-prepared. No money. No vehicle. Grades for crap. No family with college experience to share with me. I went, however, driving the six hours south on I-81. I did it alone and I did it scared.
And then I got pregnant. (Later in life, not during college.) The first time was scary and amazing and, you know, all the things. It was the second and the third times I got pregnant which were the true acts of bravery.
Each pregnancy was met with hyperemesis, long bouts of depression and months of feeling like death. But I did it, willingly, each time. I did it scared.
And I did this, Annie. I shared my three.
How about your three? Share them below!
always,
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