October 16

When I was 14, we spent the night at Carole Torian’s house.  All the girls were there for Carole’s birthday slumber party.  Mr. and Mrs. T had gone to bed and it was nearing midnight.  All the girls were sitting around the kitchen table eating chips and dips and drinking soda pop, when Dana screamed.  We all looked out the window and there were faces in the window.  I was SCARED.  I thought we were going to be killed in a robbery.  (That is where the mind of a 14 year old goes).  Then we realized it was Jeff, Chip, Billy, Johnny, Dennis, Gary and Chuck. 

But for a while I was scared.  That spirit of fear gripped me, and my mind went to some pretty scary places.  That is what fear does.  It makes you lose your sense of power (standing behind God is pretty powerful) and you lose that sound mind he describes in 2 Timothy 1:7.  You begin to hallucinate and think the worst and get totally irrational.  You are unable to make good choices because you are gripped by fear.

In retrospect, we lived in New Boston Texas which was probably one of the safest communities around.  The adults were not far away in their bedroom and probably heard us.  When we realized who was out there, we snuck out one or two at a time to “scold” the boys for scaring us.  We were locked inside a house but chose to open the door.  The phone was less than 10 feet and we all knew the number to the police station was 2771.

I’ll close by saying this every time I end a post………….Let go, and Let God!  Don’t let fear in your life.  Use fear as a means to lean on God.