Do It Scared

 

My favorite podcast lately has been the Do It Scared podcast with Ruth Soukup.  This season of transition has not been easy for me. I am a 48-year-old homeschooling mom of 9 with kids ranging from 28 down to 4.  And I am a grandma.

I got pregnant shortly after getting married and have been a stay at home mom for the whole of my married life.  Since my husband’s stroke over two years ago, our lives have been very different and I have been forced into “doing it scared” every day.

I had to trust that we would be ok and that God would provide as my husband recovered.

I had to trust that even if my husband never recovered fully, that we would not always just “survive,” but would again “thrive,” even if life never again looked like it used to.

As I chose to begin a bookkeeping course, I had to trust that my kids would be ok and that their needs could and would be met.  

I was scared through all of this, but I had to take that fear to the Lord daily, sometimes hourly.

Now, as I am getting my bookkeeping business up and running, I am scared that I will fail, or mess someone’s books up, or never even get enough clients to meet our financial needs.  But I still have to do it scared!

I cannot give up.

I cannot give in.

It is scary talking to people.  It is scary seeing myself differently than I have for the last 28 years.  It is scary knowing that some of our financial well being rests on my shoulders.  Heavenly days!  Sometimes it is scary just getting up and out the door in the morning.

One of my favorite passages of scripture for the last several years has been Proverbs 3:5-8, which says:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your flesh^[b]
    and refreshment^[c] to your bones. (ESV)

 

“Do it scared” is my motto, at least for the foreseeable future.  As Ruth Soukup often says, “Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s being willing to do IT (whatever that is for you) anyway.   Sometimes the scariest roads are the best to travel!  And so, as I “do it scared,” I encourage you to do the same.  Do it scared today!