Summary: <br> My 19 year old daughter got her first tattoo 2 weeks ago. She hid it from me for a few days, then finally sent me a text that said “Mama, don’t be mad, but guess what…” Then, she went silent for several minutes as she gathered the nerve to deliver her confession. Little did she know I wouldn’t be mad at all. In fact, I was kinda proud of her. She’s a soldier in the Army, doing things every day that scare her. Every day she wakes up at 3 am, puts on that uniform and is pushed beyond her comfort zone. But especially that week. She got a tattoo to remind her of her truth. On her right forearm it is forever inked “NO FEAR Joshua 1:9”.<br> No fear. Why? Because she was actually full of fear. She was about to begin jump week in airborne school. Jump, as in out of an airplane barreling through the sky. Not skydive, this is different. This is the training of a paratrooper. This is ‘do it wrong and you die’. This is ‘reach for the ground and your legs snap’. And understand she is a girl who doesn’t like heights, sits out on adventures, and never goes first. She was overcome with fear, but she felt if she remember what God said to her, she would find the courage to jump.<br> Joshua 1:9 says “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”<br> Her time came for that first jump, and even with her new ink, she was terrified. Shaking, crying, filled with doubt and fear. Then, she did it. She jumped anyway. Then it was time for her 2nd jump, then 3rd, 4th and 5th and she was still feared with fear. Had the tattoo not worked? Had she failed to grab ahold of that scripture and believe it?<br> No, actually she did exactly what God has instructed us to do. She had fear, but fear no longer had her. ‘No fear’ isn’t an absence of fear, it’s a declaration of ‘NO FEAR, YOU DON’T WIN.” The fear is still there, but the courage is bigger. Courage leads, fear follows. And when courage keeps leading, fear falls way behind.<br> What have you been scared to do? What next step is ahead of you but you’ve been avoiding it because of what could go wrong or what may be required of you? Well how long are you going to sit this out? Your whole life will pass you by as you wait for that fear to leave.<br> Here’s what I’ve found … I’ve never once gotten over a fear by waiting. Not a single time have I ever been cured of my fear by thinking about it, studying it, or talking about it. No, my fear only grew in my delay. We don’t have to understand fear, we have to face fear. We have to show up scared, shaking in our boots, and do it anyway.<br> No fear, you don’t win. You don’t hold me back again. You don’t cause me to sit back in a little life when I was created for a BIG life. I will make friends with being scared. I will do it afraid. And fear, you’re not welcome here. I’m doing this.<br> Why? Because honey, God has made you to be strong and courageous. Now here’s the thing. You may not feel strong and courageous right now while you’re still afraid of that next step, that jump, and that unknown future. And you won’t. That’s where we get tripped and tricked. We think one day we will FEEL strong, and then we can make that change, we can make that commitment, we can jump into our destiny, but today we just don’t feel strong enough yet, so we wait. And we wait. And we wait.<br> We wake up … self, do you feel strong enough today? Nah, not today, maybe tomorrow. Then it’s not tomorrow, maybe next month I’ll feel stronger and I’ll get started then. Nope, not next month, but maybe next year. It’s a vicious cycle of hoping to feel stronger, hoping to feel more courageous, but never quite feeling good enough so we shrink ...
