A friend shared this quote with me years ago. I read it almost every day. It is my prayer for you and for me…

 

Dear Amanda,

Today you are 16. Wow! Happy, happy birthday, dear girl.

Since I was eight years old, all I’ve ever wanted to be was a mom. But you know that story. You know how long we waited. You know how excited we were to be chosen to be your parents. You know our grief when we had to give you back. You know our joy when you came back to us. Sometimes I think what is joy to us is great sadness for you.

I’m not your first mom. I’m your second. I’m not sure how happy you are about that these days. I’m sometimes asked if it’s hard not being your only mom. But with you and for you, I’ll be second any day. And today you have two moms thinking about you, praying for you, wanting God’s very best for you.

It’s been a bumpy year for us. A painful bumpy. This mother daughter thing doesn’t come easy for us. To be honest, some days I didn’t know if we would make it to 16. But you’re here and I’m here and we did. We made it. That’s something to celebrate!

You are stunningly beautiful.

You are smart.

You love people.

You are a good friend.

You are creative.

You are loved by many.

God has amazing plans for your life, and I get a front row seat.

I love you, Amanda Brown – when it’s easy and when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Love,

Mom

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.

Thank you for joining me on this journey of 31 days to living bravely. I would love to proudly proclaim it is easier to hit publish on each blog post than it was at the beginning of this series, but it is not. Honestly. Living bravely is a lifelong pursuit. I’m in it for the long haul. I hope you are too.

Yesterday I asked the question…Where Are The Brave Girls? Today we’re going to get to know one of them. Her name is Tamar.

Tamar is mentioned only once in the New Testament. She’s the first of the five women listed in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1. Her story begins in Genesis 38. I was going to write begins and ends in Genesis, but Word of God is living and active. The stories may be old, but what we can learn from them today can change us forever.

After reading Genesis 38, I’m feeling bad for Tamar. Are you? Her first husband is wicked and dies. Her second husband is wicked and dies. Her father-in-law doesn’t want to give her husband number three for fear that he’ll die next. She’s then blamed for their deaths and sent home to wait in shame.

Scripture doesn’t let us in on Tamar’s thoughts and feelings. Oh, how I wish it did. But we’re women. We can just imagine ourselves in that situation, can’t we? During this time in her life, Tamar’s greatest longing would have been for a child, a boy child. Tamar waited for a child with husbands one and two. She waited for husband number three to grow up. She was sent home to wait. “After a long time” Judah’s wife died and then he recovered from his grief. That, too, took time. That’s a lot of waiting!

How we live our lives in the waiting is a testimony of what we believe about God. The definition of belief is confidence in the Truth. What are you believing about God in your waiting? What does your waiting attitude say about what you believe?

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting. God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. Rom 8:26

It’s easy to get tired in the waiting. I think that’s when we have the greatest opportunity to live bravely. Believing God. Trusting Him. Choosing to be patient when everything in us wants to push ahead and make our own way. Waiting is not passive. Waiting requires much from us. Waiting well is living bravely.

Tomorrow we meet Rahab.

 

Today is day 23 of 31 days of Living Bravely. The 31 day series is here.

Half way. We’re half way through the 31 days of Living Bravely. Even with some crazy technical troubles, we’ve made it this far. And please believe me when I say no one is more surprised about that than me. A consistent blogger I am not, but God is using these days in October to challenge me, to call me to something I was never sure about. And my prayer is the same for anyone reading this. Isn’t that was living bravely is all about?

Since the birth of this series in my heart, the words living bravely have taken over almost every waking thought. My first thought was, “what am I going to write about for 31 days????” Lately I’ve been thinking, “how am I going to get it all written in just 31 days?” God is crazy faithful.

The words to Brave by Nichole Nordeman are settling in deep this week.

‘cause it’s been fear that ties me down to everything
but it’s been love, Your love, that cuts the strings
so long status quo
I think I just let go
You make me want to be brave
the way it always was
is no longer good enough
You make me want to be brave

I’ll be unpacking what fear and brave living have to do with each other over the next few days. I hope you’ll join me.

 

Today is day 16 of 31 days of Living Bravely. Click here to see the complete list. Also check out the Nesting Place for the links to all the bloggers participating in the 31 day series. But set a timer or something because you will surely get lost in all the goodness over there. Seriously.