Brave

I had a conversation recently with one of my daughters.  I don’t remember the exact words.  But during the conversation my daughter mentioned that she wasn’t brave.  She had just told me a story of her doing something that she was scared to do.  She was scared, so she thought she wasn’t brave.

“Are you kidding?”  I do remember my response.  That IS being brave.  Everyone gets scared.  EVERYONE.  Being brave is continuing on in spite of being scared.  Brave is looking fear in the face and standing up even taller.

It’s hard growing up.  You make a lot of mistakes.  You make bad decisions that you knew were bad when you made them; but you made them anyway.  Do you want to know what is brave there?  Bravery there is when you ask for help to fix you mistake.

I remember feeling like I wouldn’t be mature or grown-up if I couldn’t do it myself.  And I usually ended up in a worse situation than if I had just asked for help in the first place.  The truth is that maturity and being grown up is realizing that you will NEVER be able to do everything yourself.  You will always need help.  And you will always have times when you mess up.  You may want to hide or cover-up your mistake.  But that doesn’t help.  It is fear of embarrassment or fear of trouble for your actions.  Be brave, face that fear, and fix what you can; ask for help for what you can’t.  That is being grown up.

Tonight I am thankful for knowing some pretty spectacular growing-up people.  One mistake doesn’t change that.  Asking for help is brave.  Being honest about the mess-up is incredible.  And remembering there are people who love you and always want the best for you is truly important.