Saturday I joined my mother-in-law at a lady's event held by her church. What a great time we had. Vendors were setup throughout this enormous facility and thankfully I managed not to spend too much, though very tempting. I did get some unique Christmas and Birthday gifts for family checked off my list.
.
Lunch was the next item on the venue and it was DE-LICIOUS! The Women's Committee catered in from a great Italian Cuccina, wonderful salad covered with artichoke, black olives and parmesano, baked mostoccioli, Italian bread, and for dessert a great chocolate cake cut into brownie size slices with in fact, a brownie consistency.
Yummy all the way down!
The highlight and the best gift of the event, if I may say, was listening to Ms. Valorie (*my name, it has to be good :) Burton, a published author, just completing her 6th book, and a personal life coach.
A note before I tell her story...on my way there Saturday, I actually asked God to speak to me through the speaker, I didn't know who, as I have been pretty stressed and down lately. He came through, as He only can do! He not only spoke to me through her but He knew the very point I needed to hear from Him, the very point that would get my undivided attention. "Finding Your Purpose, In Life"
Valorie shared practical coaching advice with great examples from her life that led to her zoning in and finding "God's Purpose for Her Life". Some of the stories she shared were humorous of course, but very pointed and telling. For instance, did you know FEAR is one of the biggest reasons we miss God's purpose for our lives?
She led us into a story that shared how fear can hold us back. I'll paraphrase her story here, (Valorie if for some reason you ever read this, forgive me if I miss something here.)
Overcoming Fear
...at the Portapotty - "GO-oN Now, Get!"
The story goes that when she was small her family went on a trip with her grandmother. They came to a point where Valorie felt an overwhelming need to find a restroom. So her dad stopped at what ended up being a portapotty...(I forget what state this was in but certainly as I share the rest, it wasn't a state you would find this next encounter normal at all.)
Valorie got out of the car and went to the front of the portapotty which was facing the other way. As she rounded the corner, right in front of the doors of the portapotty, she encountered none other than a MOOSE! A HUGE MOOSE...she said it was much larger than a horse. So she slowly backed up, turned and ran back to the car.
At the car, she shared with her family that she didn't need to go as badly as she thought she did.
Her family asked her what happened and she told them of the encounter with this MOOSE, at which point her 'southern', North Carolina bred Grandmother exclaimed
"A Moose?" Then directed her to come with her and headed right back to the portapotty with Valorie in hand.
When they rounded the corner there stood that MOOSE right in the same place in front of the doors and her grandmother walked right up to it, looked in it's eyes, pointed outward and said "GO-oN, Now GET!" and that Big HUGE MOOSE humbly put it's head down, turned and slowly retreated, at which point Valorie rushed into the portapotty as did her mom before that MOOSE returned! LOL too funny...a lil grandma can tell a big ole MOOSE what to do and it listens to her as 'authority'.
Her point with this story is that too often we let fear, just like that Big Ole MOOSE, hold us back and takeover, instead of facing it we run. Only problem is we don't have a fearless grandma to take over and pave the way for us as Valorie did that day.
Or do we?
...In Storms of Life
In his book 'Fearless,' Max Lucado shares that "Fear may fill our world, but it doesn't have to fill our hearts."
You don't have to be well versed in the bible to know about the incident of the Storm that hit while the disciples were out in the boat with Jesus:
The disciples were over wrought with fear while Jesus just slept in the back of the boat. Instead of realizing His authority, they questioned his character..."don't you care?" Of course we know that Jesus stood up and commanded for the storm to cease and it did.
Max shares that Jesus commands us "Don't be afraid" 21 x's, He commands us to Love God and our neighbor 8 x's...thus Max suggests, "if quantity has anything to do with it", Fear is an issue He wants US to address and make sure we know the authority we have over it.
Fear can hold us back, squash the joy right out of our lives, cause health issues and many other debilitating things for us.
Max goes onto share: "Fear sucks the life out of the soul, curls us into an embryonic state and drains us dry of contentment." "When life spins wildly, we grab for a component of life we can manage: our diet, the tidiness of a house, the armrest of a plane, or in many cases, people. The more insecure we feel, the meaner we become. We growl and bare our fangs. Why? Because we feel cornered" "Fear turns us into Control Freaks."
Max shares this story: "Martin Niemoller documents an extreme example of this. He was a German pastor who took a heroic stand against Adolf Hitler. When he first met the dictator in 1933, Niemoller stood at the back of the room and listened. Later, when his wife asked him what he'd learned, he said, "I discovered that Herr Hitler is a terribly frightened man." "Fear releases the tyrant within."
A FRESH START...
Did you know that Faith is the opposite of Fear? I didn't either! Never thought of it that way before. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
We do have authority over fear!
As Valorie shared, we need to inherit her grandma's faith and confidence, an authority over fear! Just look that fear right in the eye (just like grandma!) and say...
"GO-oN, Now GET!"
Remember how that MOOSE responded to her grandma.
Fear will respond to your authority over it, as well.
I'm all about a "Fresh Start"...
I want to put my faith in action and let loose a "GIANT" within me.
I have always depended on my faith and have even experienced the awesomeness of a "Great Faith." It never has failed me.
Join Me, if you care to, On this Ride Down Life's Highway
Just sayin...
It's Just Val, Ciao!
http://www.valorieburton.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgkTeSdiWzs
http://www.maxlucado.com/fearless/
http://www.valorieburton.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgkTeSdiWzs
http://www.maxlucado.com/fearless/
No comments:
Post a Comment