Because I live in Togo, I have been asked many times this question: "Aren't you afraid of living in a place like Africa with your children?" And my answer is yes. When I first arrived in Togo with my family I was so scared of going outside because of mosquitoes. When my son would get a mosquito bite I would be so concerned that he would get malaria. I had so many fears, mostly because of the unknown. As our family grows and I bring babies to Togo, more fears arise in me. Malaria, infections, strange illnesses, meningitis, staff infections, snakes, scorpions, and even allowing other people here to hold my baby.
I will say that with time a lot of these fears go away, but there are some fears that remain and almost haunt me as I continue to live here. Just today I was starting a bath for Ian, our youngest, and looked in the water and saw a small scorpion floating there. Thankfully I had not put him in the water yet. I decided to write this very post because of that situation. As soon as I saw the baby scorpion I immediately started thinking about what could have happened. I also wondered if this were a baby one, where is the mommy or daddy scorpions? How did it get in the bathtub? This fear was consuming, I could not stop thinking about it.
Fear can control you and hold you back in so many different areas. It can cause you to hold your children back also. I don't want to allow fear to run my life. I want to be careful but not fearful. I want to give the Lord free reign in my life and the lives of my children.
For me it is a conscious decision I have to make, to put my fears in His lap, and to follow Him, to trust Him with my life, to constantly give Him the children He entrusted me with, and to trust His plan.
There are so many verses on fear and so many of them come to mind. I love how in Joshua 1:9 God is telling Joshua, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed." But I often think of and rest in the words that follow, "for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
I am so happy that we have a God that we can give our fears to.
Fear can control you and hold you back in so many different areas. It can cause you to hold your children back also. I don't want to allow fear to run my life. I want to be careful but not fearful. I want to give the Lord free reign in my life and the lives of my children.
For me it is a conscious decision I have to make, to put my fears in His lap, and to follow Him, to trust Him with my life, to constantly give Him the children He entrusted me with, and to trust His plan.
There are so many verses on fear and so many of them come to mind. I love how in Joshua 1:9 God is telling Joshua, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed." But I often think of and rest in the words that follow, "for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
I am so happy that we have a God that we can give our fears to.
