Posts Tagged ‘fear ’

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By:  Staci Stallings

As I reported on Friday, I’ve been working a lot with my son on reading.  One of the exercises we do is use letter blocks and change one letter or group of letters at a time to make new words.  This helps him connect that we take individual sounds and blend them together into words–as opposed to each being a whole unto itself like he used to think.

So it was funny that I picked up a book I read a few years ago about how difficult but important it is for us to stop clinging to our boat, to believe in what God can do, get out of the boat, and trust that God’s going to do what He said He would do.

I often write in books when I read them.  It’s kind of like “talking back” to the book, or interacting with it, having a conversation if you will.  I’ve found when I don’t do this, passages that have great meaning to me when I read them just float into the haze of living and life.  By writing in the margins and highlighting, I can go back, sometimes years later and read a passage and see what I thought at the time.

One such entry in this particular book struck me as funny, poignant, and particularly useful to me now.

It went like this fear -> feat -> feet.

I think we use (or let) fear stop us.  To go forward in the face of fear is truly a feat.  It takes a leap of faith and courage to do it anyway.  I heard someone once say, “You’ve got to learn to do it scared.”  I think that’s true.  We sometimes think those with courage don’t have fear.  That’s not true.  They do have fear, but they have found a way to do it anyway.

That’s why I think doing it anyway is such a feat.  And such feats happen everyday, if we’re atuned enough to see them–in others and in ourselves.

When faith conquers fear, it is a feat that often turns into feet… that is action.  It’s like your heart throws you over the bar and the rest of you follows.

I think this week, I will be working on fear to feat to feet.

How about you?  What’s fear stopping you from doing?

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