Faith over Fear
It has been said that fear is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. Every successful person has felt fear. Fear is an emotion that shuts out love and joy. You can become paralyzed by what might happen, and you shut down the possibilities of what could happen. We can choose to not allow fear to control our lives. Fear might be in the car with you (hopefully in the back seat) but it does not have to be driving you. This is our time to live out our faith and do what we were called to do. You and I cannot reach our potential when we are paralyzed by fear. We are going to need courage. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage believes you can do that difficult thing even while you are afraid. Fearful people hear good advice. They listen. They take notes and they feel encouraged. Hearing is not what overcomes your fears. It is DOING!
Let me take you back in history to the Great Depression. President Roosevelt was elected in 1933, and there were poverty and despair hanging over the nation. He didn’t deny it. He said, “Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.” That is not what we remember, however, from his First Inaugural Address. He is known in our history for this single declaration: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” There is good fear that keeps us safe and helps us to make good decisions. Fear was never supposed to make us inactive. Start planning your pace with your eyes on the goal and take that first step today. You will find those small steps will turn into a march, and finally, you will be moving in stride and free of that “false evidence appearing real.”
What is happening in the world is less important than how you are responding to it. Our children, our family members, our employees are watching how we lead not in times of plenty but in times of lack. Your children will not remember the newspaper articles, MSNBC, or news conferences, what they will remember is how you, their leader responded during Covid-19. How will you respond? Will you allow fear to paralyze you? or will you allow fear to fuel you? God does not give us the spirit of fear but of power, and love, and a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7). A sound mind that remains calm even when the storms of life are raging. Why? because we are Boss Women: Bold, Optimistic, Successful Sisters who are rooted, grounded, and anchored in faith. Faith that knows without the rain there can be no rainbow. What keeps fear from controlling my life is that I don’t want to get to the end of my life and have to say I would have, I should have but…. I didn’t. So I fear nothing but a mediocre life, I fear nothing but an UNFULFILLED PURPOSE!