"I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears."
(Psalm 34:4)

How often do I (you?) ask God to free me from fear? Trial? Sure. Pain? Yes. Troubles? Yup, been there too. I think there is nothing wrong with asking God to free us of these things. But what if...what if, what I really need to be free from is my fear? Fear of trials, fear of pain, fear of troubles, fear of things that are so far outside of my control anyway that I can do nothing but lay them at God's feet. There is no lack of things to fear in this world, my friends - my news feed is full of them. I don't think the solution, actually, is to ignore things that we might fear. They are there whether we want them to be or not. But when the psalmist declared here that the Lord had answered him? God had answered him by delivering him from fear. From all of his fears! How differently might I live if I lived in the truth that my God is the God who delivers me (us) from fear?

(Walking, stumbling, asking God to help me walk the road of fearlessness. Because God is with me. Always.)

parenting in fear

"Running directly at the herd is a ploy to generate panic" David Attenborough's voice comes through the Netflixed first episode of Planet Earth. As I watch the 3 million strong herd of caribou being split apart by a handful of white-haired wolves, I think of a video a friend posted earlier this week. "The herd breaks up, and now it's easier to target an individual." The wolves are particularly after the young.

God

God does not treat his holiness or sin lightly. Neither does he treat his relentless pursuit of me lightly. To do anything other would make him less than who he is. I am so grateful.