When You're In the Need of a Bit of Courage...

There is the one dear child. The one resistant to change. The one who fights hard to squirm and wiggle out of the new and unfamiliar.

And then that one child is crying and fighting going to bed the first night away because he's homesick and he doesn't "know this room." And the anxiety is pouring through his large eyes and wringing hands. And I can relate.

Because when the flesh of your flesh is in the grip of fear and anxiety, and you can so completely empathize because you have been there so many times before, it's hard. But you know down deep that caving and supporting the fears wouldn't be helpful in building the courage muscles in his mind but would only work to grow and feed the fears. And you know because you've lived it for too many years.

And somehow the wisdom comes. What the mother, who has lived captive to too many fears in her young life, should do. The easy way ~ make a bed on the floor for the child to sleep at the mother's feet.

Or...

Lovingly speak truth into the soul. The truth salve that covers those raw, sore places and soothes. And courage should be spoken of as it truly is...

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the presence of action despite the fear.

And this talk of courage and the God who gives it works its way down into the heart of young boys and mamas alike. And knowing that the One who made you is always with you no matter where your feet tread heals the anxiety of the unknown, the new, the unfamiliar.



After all, the safest place to be is in the presence of God and if the God-Spirit indwells you, well, then you are always in the safest place.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence? 

 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea, 

 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast. 

 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,” 

 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

Psalm 139:7-12

So the tears cease. The head lays down on the linens and the eyes close in the new, unfamiliar room. Because a mind washed anew with truth can rest right there in that truth. And the weary traveler can lay his head down soundly in the unfamiliar because he knows the Almighty One who ever travels with him.

And the mama lays her head down on the unfamiliar pillows, in the unfamiliar bedroom of her own, thankful to the Father for helping her little boy be courageous and reminding her to be as well.