Fear Is Not the Boss of You by Jennifer Allwood

Author:Jennifer Allwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2020-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

IF I DON’T MODEL FOR MY KIDS HOW TO do it scared, WHO WILL?

* * *

When I am trapped like that in my own head, I am not who I want to be as their mom. I’m short, I’m frustrated, I’m distracted. And they know that.

As the mom, the encourager of the home, the head cheerleader for your children, if you are preaching bravery but paralyzed with fear, there is a problem.

If over your family dinner (and by family dinner, I mean Jimmy John’s, because #freakyfast) you are telling your kiddos that they should sign up for student council, that they should audition for that part in the play, or that they should go out for the basketball team again even though they were cut last year, and yet you aren’t stretching yourself toward the dream in your heart—the desire to run a race or quit a job or start a Bible study or finish a degree—then you, my friend, are not practicing what you preach.

In the words of my pastor, Phillip O’Reilly, “You’re preaching the measles but you have the mumps.”

And around here we call that hypocrisy.

Now listen, I’m as guilty as the next girl. (Hello, brownie batter.) But when it comes to summoning up some courage and getting out of your comfort zone and doing the things you’re called to do, it’s so important to remember your children are watching and making mental notes. Your kids will take their cues from you, Mom.

We hire people to teach our kids how to drive, but we never consider who will teach them to be courageous. We count on schools to teach them Spanish, but who is teaching them obedience to God? We teach them how to ride a bike, but we don’t teach them how to get our souls out of a stuck place.

Moms, you can’t delegate or hire out or pass off to someone else the lesson of doing hard things. This is your job. Tag, you’re it.

I believe the degree to which you model courage for your children is the degree to which your kids will walk in it. It’s you. Yes, Dad’s courage matters too, but I have a strong conviction that courage has Mom’s name written all over it.

Now listen, I talk to women allllllll the time who tell me they “can’t” start the thing, return to school, get back in shape, take the trip, et cetera, because they have little ones. And I want you to know, I get it. But I often find that moms do one of two things:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.