What Ifs...Stepping Past Fear to What Could Be

For those wanting updates on my daughter, she is recovering well.  She has returned to work and is starting to get back into the swing of her old life.  Her memory is definitely effected, but we are finding ways to overcome this obstacle.  Before starting back to work, she was really fighting anxiety.  What if I mess up?  What if I can't do stuff I used to do?  One of the things my husband and I try to build in our children is resilience.  Resilience means the ability to overcome hard times.  So many times, we quit or refuse to try because we may face an obstacle.  I've told my children that you can't live your life in fear.  What if I can't?  What if it won't work?  If you live this mentality, you will never do anything with your life.  God was a God of action.  He spoke things into existence.  He created things that we still haven't discovered.  This God created us.  We can chose to live in our man-made boundaries or believe that the God of the impossible can do anything through us.  He spoke through a donkey (Balaam).  So when Megan expressed anxiety we remembered that the God who got her through surgery and recovery so amazingly could get her through work.  How did her first week back go?  Yes, she made some mistakes.  Yes, she may have been slower than others, but she stepped out and tried.  That is overcoming the "What ifs".  Aimee is trying new things this year.  She has not played basketball since Upwards.  She had to battle the "What ifs" in her life.  What if I am horrible?  What if I mess up?  What if others make fun of me?  I'm very proud of her because she stepped over the "What ifs" and stood on "What if I don't".  What if I don't play?  I may never realize how good I could be?  They say that children who perform well in school tend to be so afraid of failure that they choose not to try new things.  The importance is not in mastery.  It's in learning from the journey and understanding in failures that successes are born.  Saturday, I took a stroll through my front lawn.  Actually my huge Weimaraner decided he needed to use the bathroom, so he hauled me through my yard.  At one of the stop and sniff points, I started to notice one of the fruit trees my husband planted in our yard.  We have been waiting patiently for the trees to bear fruit, but it just hasn't happened.  At one point, my husband backed over the poor, defenseless tree with his truck.  It was severed, but we quickly duck-taped it back together and zip-tied it to a post.  Yes, you heard right.  We duck-taped and zip-tied a tree.  We are in the South.  Just as the tree began to show life again, an ice storm or a freeze would hit.  This year, two hard freezes struck after the weather had warmed and the trees had already flowered.  We knew once again that no fruit would come.  But as I stared up at the trees, I noticed something in the branches.  The duct-taped tree had plums on its branches.  No, they were not massive, nor plentiful but they were present.  The peach tree also had peaches growing- five in total.  So my friends, you may be at a freezing point.  You may feel frozen by the fear of  "What if".  But in the midst of a freeze, God can provide miracles.  He can grow fruit in a barren place.  It may not be a ton at first, but as you begin to change your "What if" to "What if I don't", you will see God open doors for you and show Himself faithful.  Remember, you can never see the mountaintop if you don't climb the mountain.  Once you get to the top, you will realize the real beauty was in surviving the climb.

Have a great week high-heeled warriors!