Fear

Years ago I taught Zumba classes.  It was FUN!

Well, the Zumba-ing was fun.  I learned after a while that leading a class was just not my thing.  Gratefully, I had a wonderful group of people who were merciful to my quirkiness and moments of zoning out.

What was most unexpected about that whole experience was one of my children.  We have done Zumba in the living room for around 8 years.  My youngest is 9.  So yeah, my kids know Zumba pretty well 🙂  When I started teaching classes, of course I told them that they could come!  I was surprised when my third oldest wanted to come up with me to teach the class.  And she did pretty good with it too!  If you had taken this girl to a restaurant to order her meal, she would mumble and not look up.  But put her in a group of adults who were dancing and shaking; and she was in her element!  And those moments have been brought up regularly when she feels scared of things.  Moments of bravery are always a good thing to remember in life!

My oldest child has never dreamed of public speaking, to put it mildly.  Lately, her unwillingness to speak in front of people has become a growing concern.   We had a talk very recently about her mindset on this.  If she keeps clinging to the fact that she’s not comfortable in front of people; then she will never be comfortable in front of people.  This is not a thing that just happens in life.  She won’t wake up one day and suddenly be “over it”.  She has to make this change herself.  She has to stand up, even though she is nervous, and just do it anyway.  Because sometimes in life, that is how you chase away fear – you stand up, you look at it, and you just keep going.

I will admit that when I was the ages of both of these children in tonight’s blog; I was petrified to talk in front of people.  I do completely understand my kids here.  But, I have also learned that it won’t get better, until they make it get better.  That is a lesson that I wish I would have learned earlier in life.  I hate fear.  With a passion, I hate fear.  It is limiting, and binding, suffocating, and it is a lie.  And the only way to make it go away is to face it; every single time it pops up.

I know this is a battle of a lifetime.  I know fear always tries to find a new way to show up.  But fear won’t win.  This is my life resolve; to not let fear win.  Fear does not come from God.  Fear is not good.  With everything that is within me; I will equip my children for this battle in their own lives.  I want better for them to be afraid of things. I want them to go enjoy life and to conquer their dreams!  And that can’t happen if they are afraid to talk . . even just to another human and order food . . . they’d starve!  =p

Ok, reeling myself back in here now . . . I’m a little passionate about this.

Tonight I am thankful for watching my daughter this evening.  My self-proclaimed “afraid to talk in front of people” is my assistant coach.  She took turns in front of three groups of girls tonight teaching them cheers and helping them.  She may have been nervous.  She may have been scared.  But she did it anyway.  And she did fantastic!  This will absolutely be one of those moments of bravery that I will be reminding her of on many occasions!