Do Not Be Terrified

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you. Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified.  Do not be discouraged.  For the Lord Your God will be with you wherever you go.

God gave me my grandson Julian to remind me of all the lessons I have forgotten. When he was four while I was driving home from vacation bible school his little voice came from the back seat “I don’t have to be afraid of anything”. I asked, “why not”. He said “Because I have Jesus in my heart”. How very simple his faith. When did my faith get all complicated and blurry? I am not strong and courageous but even when I said “this is too hard, I don’t want to be here anymore” God was with me. When I wanted nothing more than for this life to go on without me, even then, when I had given up God did not.  He reminded me that even when I want to quit  I can’t just leave my daughter, my two grandsons, my mom or any of the friends He has put in my path. Julian has shared his bible school lessons and Sunday school lessons with me for several years. It’s all somehow new hearing it in his voice and seeing it through his eyes. I look at the little scrap of paper fastened to my refrigerator door with a  magnet and see the little head bowed over it at my dining room table, writing so carefully with his pencil, “For the Lord Your God will be with you wherever you go.” And I pray someday I will read it and believe it as completely and without question as the boy who wrote it does.