When everything comes crashing down around you

I heard the thunderous crash and Heidi’s blood-curdling scream and ran into the kid’s room.

 The large, wooden dresser had fallen on top of my tiny girl.

I pushed up the dresser, gathered her into my arms and ran into the living room. As I listened to her cries, encouraged that she was coherent, I could make out the words, “I was trying to put on my swimsuit.”

My sweet girl had been trying to be brave.

See, “Try new things” is not exactly on my kids’ list of favorite things to do. They would both be content staying home, all day, every day, and playing Legos or reading books or doing our normal routine. This works well since I’m a homebody too, but every once in awhile we’ve got to push these babes to risk … just a little.

Insert swim lessons.

I had found a class for 3-5 year-olds, so they could be together. I told them they could hold hands, that I’d be nearby, that no one would dunk them under or throw them in the deep end. Still, they both cried. We counted down the days until we began, and the morning of I was so blessed to see them make a valiant effort at bravery. My 5-year-old son started repeating to himself, “This is going to be fun. It’ll feel like playing!” (I’m all for self-talk!) and my little daughter announced she would get ready all by herself.

So she, wanting to be brave, wanted to get her swim-suit for class. But it was in the top drawer, so she opened the bottom drawers and climbed up the front. Yes, you can guess what happened next. By God’s amazing and miraculous mercy, my son’s bed broke the fall (hooray for tiny shared bedrooms where there isn’t even enough room for a dresser to fall flat on the floor!) and so it pinned her head against the bed, the dresser drawers against her face and her body hanging down off the bed.

It looked worse than it was. I expected her teeth to be through her face. I expected blood everywhere. But because of the soft bed, she didn’t have a single scratch.  After she quit crying a slightly puffy lip was the only real damage we could find.

Praise God. 

She was still a little shaken when it was time to brave the pool waters, but she quickly conquered her fear and had an awesome time. Swim lessons ended up being one of the greatest experiences of my kids lives so far. It was such a significant victory and made them so much braver ever since.

I couldn’t help but see the parallel in my own life.

The enemy does not want us to be brave. He wants to keep us living ever-cautious, ever-safe, never risking, never trying new things. When we do make a choice to branch out in faith, he will do whatever he can to intimidate us, scare us, fill us with fear, whatever he can do to keep us from bravely moving out in faith. 

He will drop dressers on us. He will drop bombs of discouragement and depression. He will bring unexpected conflict, confusion. He will toss heaviness our way, misgivings and misfortune. But the amazing part?

We will walk away unscathed. 

You’ve probably heard it said, Satan is de-clawed. He can try to scare us, intimidate us, and fill us with fear, but he cannot truly harm us. And no matter what may befall us …

We will not be shaken.

As my daughter shook off her scary incident and persevered in her swim lesson-adventure, I knew God was telling us to to persevere in faith, be brave, risk, and refuse to let the enemy intimidate in order to keep us cowering. 

What are you attempting to do today? Where are you trusting God? Stepping out in faith? Risking? Being brave? Can you see where the enemy would love to intimidate you? Scare you? Use fear tactics to keep you cowering? How can you choose to trust God and not be shaken today? Can I offer an idea: Read Psalm 91 right here. This just “happened” to be my Bible reading the morning that this happened.  Praying bravery and courage for you today; thanks for reading!