Last year, I bought a devotional called 100 Days to Brave by Annie F. Downs. I’d pick it up here and there, but honestly never dove in. At the end of last year, Annie challenged all of us to start it on January 1st. Start the year off bravely!
I have really enjoyed consistently doing it. She obviously talks about bravery every day. I love the challenge. I don’t think of myself as a brave person. In fact, I often think of myself as a chicken– honestly, most people probably do.
One day, the challenge was to take what God has put in you, and do it. Do the thing that you are passionate about and do it without fear. I thought, I’m not brave. I’ll never do that.
But, then, I thought about it. After eight years of being a stay-at-home mom, I got a part time job at the library. I had to learn something new. Honestly, it was a LOT of new things to learn. So much more than I expected. Just filling out an application and sending my resume took a huge amount of bravery. Saying YES took a lot of bravery.
I took the brave and crazy step to seek out the farm house. I could have tucked away what this woman told me, and never pursued it. But, I chased a dream, and it may pay off.
Then, there is this blog. This blog takes bravery. To put down my thoughts and share them with the world takes a lot of courage. I love writing. God has put this desire and longing in my heart, and I decided to really run with it this year. This website is MINE. It was terrifying to take the step to buy a domain. Want to know a secret? My husband and ONE other person know that this blog exists. I keep hiding it, afraid to share that I took a HUGE plunge.
There are so many things that I have done that took bravery. I am not brave on my own. Jesus is the source of any courage that I have. My steps may be a little shaky, but I am taking them.
What do you need to do? What is the step towards bravery that you need to take? I really encourage you to pick up this book and do the 100 days with us. It’s not too late to catch up!