Why 2014 Needs to Begin With an F Word

Her face was solemn as she approached me those few minutes before the worship service began. I sat at the piano, running over the order of service in my head and trying to keep it together. Our pianist is out of commission with a shattered elbow, which leaves me.

She spoke softly,"Mom..." So seriously, "[Your son] said the F word."

I can't tell you what I was thinking at that point. Survival mode and repeated misinformation about the severity of words with that particular initial kept me calm.

"Okaaaayyy. What's the 'f word?'"

She moved closer to my ear and whispered, "friggin."

I breathed a sigh of relief- that's not my word. I'm not saying I'm too good for it. I'm saying it's not part of my repertoire. I called the boy down from the balcony and he knew he'd done wrong before he got to the piano. Problem solved.

I'm no stranger to blogging about f-words. But there is one f-word I'm just ready to kick to the curb.

Fear.

So my word for the year is FEARLESS. Another F word. A word that I am looking forward to exploring at length in the scriptures.

Because for far too long I have let my knowledge of the evil in the hearts of mEn eclipse my confidence in the power of God.

Because FEARLESS makes a terrific acrostic to describe the One who makes me fearless, as well as the reasons He gives me for being fearless. Really. Take the word and use each letter to describe something you know about God. Words pop up like Father, faithful, forgiving, everlasting, eternal, alive, awesome, Alpha, relentless, rescuer,radical, Love, Life, Light, empathetic, everything, Savior, salvation, shelter, Shepherd.

It's EXCITING!

Then take those same letters and describe yourself in terms of being His child.

A-MAZING!

Where is the fear? It's drowned in the awesome that is our God.

And I'm also thinking a new graphic or button would be perfect for the occasion, but you know- that takes time. So I'll get around to it. For now, this will do:

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; 

of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1

Please join me on this trip- even if you don't find fear to be such a ferocious enemy. There is just so much to be gained when we get together and dig into what our God can do! And while I don't fight anything nearly as fantastic as fire-breathing dragons, I'm not so naive as to think the thief isn't daily coming into my little world to steal and destroy. But our God is so much bigger. SO MUCH! It is my prayer that this year holds everything we could possibly need to grow closer to the Lord- namely, Him. God bless you all!

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It's not Wednesday. Nor does my post begin with three words, but I'm linking up anyway!