A face of fear

Alright, time to be real. It's never fun to show your inner yucky struggles with people but this is where true growth and encouragement come from I think. 

Fear is something that has consistently overwhelmed my life.

As I kid I worried about pretty much anything and everything I could think of. 

As a teenager God began working in me hard......showing me the beginnings of what living a life with him could like. That this thing.........this thing called FEAR that till then had crippled me could be lifted off my shoulders through complete trust in him.

This continued into college as a continual and painful process of learning to let go. Sometimes every hour of every day. I longed to live my life with no fear and worry, it bothered me that this was still and issue in my life. 

Into married life I grew even more and God used my husband with his constant optimism and calm presence to really challenge me.

Then my first baby was born it was like I took 100 steps back. My fears had always been for me, my family, my friends. But this tiny new life catapulted that fear to a completely new level. I had never struggled with worry as much as those first months with her. I had never felt like a literal part of my heart was outside of me, unable to be kept safe despite all my efforts. Ohhhh man how God worked in me that first year. Finally being able to give the most precious thing I had ever known over to him was so hard, but also so freeing.

Sometimes fear seems just at bay, like a storm coming in that threatens to consume me. I love the words from that Hillsong song that sing "So I will call upon your name, and keep my eyes above the waves." Sometimes that's all I can do. Keep my eyes above waves of fear that want to overtake me.

Times when it threatens to take over I get a little glimpse of what my life would look like without him, I can't imagine living like that.

It is still a struggle. 

I won't lie I often am just so aggravated that this is even an issue for me, that I just leave it behind as a past struggle never to surface again. Since my life belongs to God I want to not have fear catch my foot so often. But I know that this is a reality until I am home with him. But what a joy to know that one day it won't be. 

This is written during a time when I would have normally been undone with worry about my child and her health.



So thankful that I can rest in him. That I can unload the huge burden that carrying this would have been onto his shoulders. 

I hope this encourages those of you who struggle with fear and worry daily. That you will allow him to take that off your shoulders and learn to rest in him. To hide under his wings.