Joshua 1:9
“Be strong and courageous. So not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
My Father, I can still hardly believe that I may need to eat a dead, dried-out cricket today. Please help me! I’m going to need so much water, and maybe a bucket if I’m going to throw up!
Caroline, you’ll be okay; be brave.
Okay, I’ll make up my mind to be brave. A live cricket would definitely be worse, and I don’t know if I’d be able to do that!
Caroline, I love you. Come, you are Mine and I will be with you. Don’t worry.
My Father, do you have a word for me today?
You are Mine -I love you, and I’m proud of you.
Okay Dad. Help me to continue putting my writing/speaking piece together; I have a few quiet hours today.
I am your help my faithful one; come as you are.
Reflection:
When God told Joshua to be brave and courageous, it was because he was about to lead the Israelites into their promised land; there they would need to fight many battles in order to be able to settle in the land. In my journey with the Lord I think the opposite is true; I’ve needed to go through an intensified period of hardship, and at the same time learn to trust in Jesus as he continually led me through many of my comfort zones. It’s because I followed him through these comfort zones that were so difficult, that I could see that I could trust him more and more, and therefore I was able to love him more and more. This journey actually awakened my heart; now I know what God’s love is. In this journey he’s led me to know what my calling is, so eating a dead cricket today could represent that my old life has passed away and that all things are going to become new as he leads me into my promised land.. This morning at the gym we worked on our Power Clean & Jerk (I did 65lbs), sets of 6-5-4-3-2, and the workout was an amrap in 8 min. of: 3 pushups, 3 Cleans (not Jerk, and kept my 65lbs), 6 push-ups-3 cleans; 9 pushups -3 cleans; 12 pushups -3 cleans. I did 3 full rounds.
I had a dream last night where I had been at a youth event, but then I had gone home to pick something up (Jesus my husband and I were married and this was our home; I’ve come into line with him, with his will for my life). Before I went inside I saw there were some kids hanging out by our house on our driveway and in front of our entrance; they wanted to come inside our house. I looked at the window beside the door and saw one of the kids probably standing on tippy toes, peaking out through the window and I knew there were more kids inside. I also knew the door was unlocked. There was a little girl, a few years old, that ran in front of the door and I playfully ran after her. When I caught her I hugged her and touched her head/hair and loved her like she was my own. At first the kids seemed to be like strangers but then so quickly I felt love for them and wanted to take care of them. Then the scene changed where we were all inside. Our house was really nice and big and had white marble floors (standing on the Rock?) I saw one of the girls run to the stairs that was also all marble, and the stairs went down maybe six steps (my guess-I couldn’t see the stairs from where I was standing). Around the top landing of the stairs there wasn’t any wall so I could see the marble floor that the stairs went down to. The little girl ran so close to the edge that I was afraid she’d fall, and I called out to her, “careful!” She fell off the landing and onto the floor below, but the distance wasn’t very far so I saw that she was okay. I saw her sitting on the floor and getting back up right away. Then I thought I had better hurry back to youth because I hadn’t even told anyone that I was going to leave, and I was scheduled to lead a game or something. I pictured them leading worship and other things. Here I think the Lord is just showing me that in my heart I’m ready to continue helping out at youth. Before the dream ended I was driving on my way back to youth, hoping I hadn’t missed too much. Following Jesus these last seven years has truly been such an adventure!!!