I have been through many arduous and challenging things in my life that have required courage, but, oddly enough, I’ve never thought of myself as a courageous person. I walked through 10 years of watching my son become a drug addict and dealer, end up in jail for an extended period, seen him lying in a hospital bed in an induced coma and lived in a state of high alert. Everyday was a battle against fear; the fear that he would overdose or someone would take his life. And at the end of that horrible nightmare, my late husband was diagnose with an incurable brain tumor and died after 10 months. Fear was amped up to a more heightened level than ever, as I stared it down right in the face. I was afraid to be alone, since I’d been married most of my adult life, afraid to live and be solely dependent on Christ in my life, as opposed to a man.
Somehow and somewhere along my healing journey I chose to be courageous, to face life and all that was before me, to face my giants and tell fear to be gone! I didn’t feel courageous, I simple made the choice to walk out my identity as a child of God, complete and lacking nothing, and be whom God created me to be—a woman of valor.
Courage is something we choose, not because of our own strength, but because of God’s strength in us. Whatever you face today, or whatever valley you’ve been walking through face your fear, look within for your strength and choose courage. When you do, there will be an eventual shift inside of you that will energize you and give you hope.