I read this the other day and wanted to share it with you.
“Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you!”
It’s all about the mindset by which we proceed through life. Do you ever feel afraid? Fear can creep in and cause us to doubt ourselves if we let it. Everyone has been there. What makes us afraid? Fear of failure, fear of disappointing people we love, fear of heights, fear of . . . you name it!
At the time I wrote this, we had just gone through a horrible night of tornados and high winds in Alabama. There is so much damage and destruction. My heart goes out to all the people who suffered and experienced loss or hurt. When I was in high school, our home was struck by lightning. I remember the night vividly. It was April 1, and I was scared to death. All of us were fine, but our home had significant damage. Fear became real in our lives. Every time a thunderstorm was predicted, I just cringed inside and felt panicky.
It took a long while to become less afraid of thunder and lightning. When my twins were 6 weeks old, we had tornados overhead. I was alone with them and frightened. I had to muster the courage to get us to a safe place and take shelter. I gathered up those 4-pound babies and found an inner room. Thankfully, the storm passed over us, but I realized I had to take courage to protect my sons and overcome my fears.
I just loved the last sentence of that quote: Courage means not letting fear stop you. Wow, that’s powerful! Fear must never stop us from accomplishing what we need to do. We must have courage to rebuild, forge ahead, and never stop.
For our friends across our nation who were victims of the storm: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” —John 16:33 (NKJV)
Our love and prayers are with you all!
Comments 21
Simply beautiful and inspiring quotes.
God Bless All
To God be the glory!
I have a plaque that reads:
“Don’t worry about tomorrow;
God is already there.”
He’s behind that closed door.
He’s around that corner.
He is ahead of us preparing the way; at the same time, He is beside us, holding us with His righteous right hand.
Thank you for this post, Phyllis. There have been times in my life where I had fear, but clutched to God’s word. Being a mom certainly ups our “bravery” muscle, doesn’t it? My prayers are with all those who lost so much during this latest storm. That verse is one of my favorites. Xo Lidy
Phyllis, thank you for this wonderful post. I needed to read it today.
Many blessings –
Phyllis~ I sure appreciate your blog and words of wisdom. They always seem to come at the right time. I didn’t know you have twins, mine are 23 now. Blessings to you…….
Thank you for your post Phyllis. There have been many moments of fear in my life that have been calmed by turning to this quote: “Fear cannot exist where faith resides.” It’s true, you can’t have both together. You either have one or the other. Always choose faith.
Beautiful post, Phyllis. So glad your family came through safely.
I love reading your blog and Victoria magazine so much. Thank you for quoting this verse. God never promised us an easy care free life, but to keep our eyes on Him and that helps keeps things in perspective and knowing we are not alone makes things easier to bear.
I have always heard that faith is the opposite of fear. Yes, we are all fearful at times. We grab hold of our faith and courage and faith moves us forward. I was struck by lightning when I was a child. To this day I have a healthy fear of lightning. We cannot allow our fears to stagnate our dreams or keep us from moving forward. Loved the scripture you used..a great lesson. Thank you.
I struggle with fear, especially of things unknown. I want to know what’s through that door, what’s around that corner, all the things I cannot see. But I could drive myself crazy if I gave in to every fear. So I pray for courage to move forward and remind myself that GOD hasn’t given me a spirit of fear but of love and power and sound mind. I can get fearful about situations concerning my children but I remind myself( and them) ” Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid , for the LORD your GOD is with you wherever you go.” Thank you once again Phyllis for speaking words of wisdom that put courage into our hearts for real-life situations. I’m so glad you were kept safe in the storms!!
I underlined these in our Bible study yesterday:
– Courage isn’t a lack of fear, but courage means moving forward even in the face of fear.
– It’s choosing to be brave when fear rises up.
– God reminded Joshua that he could be strong and courageous because He would never leave him.
Thank you Phyllis. I live in NE AL and we had to get in our safe place for about 40 minutes as our area was under a tornado warning. I love the verse you used, John 16:33, it provides comfort! Blessings~
When you think of it, we are brave many times in the day. Moving through traffic in rush hour, meeting new people, speaking in front of a new group can give us all ‘the willies’. Suffering through devastation and injury, or worse, calls us to pull from our bank of our small brave acts and move one step at a time. My sister lives in northern Alabama and heard siren warnings but it passed her area without damage. Prayers to all affected and may spring continue to cause us to be awestruck.
God’s word says that we Will have tribulation in this world. Tribulation strengthens our faith and courage. We all have mountains to climb, but you know what? You can’t climb a SMOOTH mountain! The obstacles give us something to grip. We can choose to grab it, to hold on to it and pull ourselves upward. Once we have taken a step of faith, God will take it from there and take you higher than you ever imagined. God does not give us a spirit of fear. Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. ( Proverbs 16:3.
Pam,
Wonderfully said!
I have always loved this quote:
“Fear knocked at the door.”
Faith answered,
And found no one was there.”
(anonymous)
A beautiful thought…thank you. I think I will write this on the wall over my bed!
Thank you! This was a topic at lunch today and I am happy to read your thoughts. I was in a tornado in grade school, and the next three months are always hard for me, especially living here in tornado alley the way I do. My prayers go out to all who have suffered from storms!
Wow. I didn’t know about the tornado but after reading this I looked it up. Tornadoes are so frightening. My hometown was devastated by one when I was in grade school. The scars lasted for years–at first devastation, then the new houses rebuilt among the old.
Your quote, though, was very empowering. I can think of many times when I was scared to death but just forged ahead anyway. I never before considered it courageous.
Prayer is the key to Heaven but faith unlocks the door.Dad