Deb Brown

finding freedom in the next brave step

My One Word

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Happy New Year! For lots of years I dreaded the start of a new year. I labored over all I didn’t accomplish and dreaded the thought of creating another long list. I’m not sure exctly why I thought I had to, but I did. You, too?  

A few years ago a dear friend challenged me to find one word. A word I could focus on all year. A word that would help define my daily choices. It’s worked well for me. I’ve learned so much.

My one word for 2014 is…

  OneWord2014Believe

 

If you’ve heard me speak or have spent any time at this blog, you know I’m a recovering fear girl. I’ve learned that every one of my fears is rooted in unbelief. So each step I take away from fear needs to, has to, start with believe.

And not just believe as in acknowledging something or someone exists, but going deeper than that. Dictionary.com defines believe as having confidence, trust, faith, or conviction in something or someone. The Greek Lexicon says this – “to trust in Jesus or God as able.” Love that.

Do not fear, only believe.  Mark 5:36

Do you have a word? Please share it. There’s so much we can learn from each other. I’ll be posting one word updates throughout the year. I hope you’ll join me.

What I’ve Learned About Living Bravely

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It’s day 31. As you can see, I started out well, but my finish was pretty weak.

I’m glad I took the challenge. Please don’t ask me for a while if I’ll be doing it again. (big sigh…)

Your emails were a great encouragement to me. Together I think we’ve learned some things.

Living bravely is not a solo pursuit. We need each other.

Living bravely is not living perfectly. Waiting around for perfection keeps us from taking that first step.

Living bravely is embracing our stories and sharing them.

Living bravely is doing the thing afraid even when everything in us is screaming NO!

My life verse is Habakkuk 3:19.

The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!

We are brave girls only because the Lord is that for us – our personal bravery. Oh that we would no longer choose to stand still in terror! God has so much waiting for us just one step beyond standing still. He taught me that all over again just this week.

Let’s do this brave thing. And if you see someone standing still, reach out your hand and take that first step together.

 

Next week I’ll be finishing up the God’s Girls series. I have lots to share about what I’ve learned from those amazing, ordinary women. I hope you’ll join me.

To see most of the days in this series, just click here. Thank you.

Saturday Reflection

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31days_brene.

What’s making you feel the most alive right now? Today I have the privilege of speaking and serving a community of women. It requires much trust, dependence on God’s strength, and bravery. Brene is right. Doing this thing called ministry makes me feel alive.

It’s day 26 of the 31 days to Living Bravely and our last Saturday Reflection. You can check out the other posts here.

Meet God’s Girl…Ruth

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Thank you for taking the time to get to know some God’s Girls with me. We’ve met Tamar and Rahab so far. Today we meet Ruth.

I love a good love story. The book of Ruth is a classic wrapped up in just 87 verses.

As I was thinking again about this living bravely series and reading Ruth, one word kept getting in my way. Honor.

Honor is defined as showing high respect, esteem, great regard, reverence, to bow oneself down

From Ruth I’ve learned a few things…

Honor is an action. Ruth chose to stay with and care for her mother-in-law, Naomi, when it would have been easier to leave.

Honor is risky. Ruth respecting Boaz and his people not knowing what their reaction would be was risky and honorable at the same time.

Honor has nothing to do with the word deserve. I’m taking some biblical license here, but I don’t think Ruth thought she deserved the love of Boaz and his provision for Naomi.

It often seems easier to give honor to someone when we think they’ve done something to earn it. But that’s not what God says:

Love each other with genuine affection and take great delight in honoring each other. Romans 12:20

Daily I need to choose to show honor:

to my guy when I’d rather be demanding
to my girls when I’m ready to react with some volume
to my friends when my feelings have been hurt
even to the checkout guy at Target who isn’t the best bagger and I’m so wanting to tell him so

Is there an area where honor is a challenge for you?

Ruth is one brave woman in my eyes. I’m grateful for all 87 verses.

If you’d like to read more about Ruth’s story, Liz Curtis Higgs wrote an excellent book all about her. It’s The Girl’s Still Got It. It’s worth your time. I promise.

 

Today is day 25 of the 31 days of Living Bravely series. Just click here to start at the beginning.