missing out for fear's sake

I wrote a post last night. It was fantastic. I had another sentence or two to write but needed to come up with something witty. I closed my eyes and my screen darkened. I opened my eyes a minute later and unlocked my screen only to find that the entire post was lost! 😩 I was too tired to try again so, alas, no post yesterday. I'll try again today but I'll remember save it after every sentence. 

This Fourth of July was great. Every year we host a little shindig with my family and a few friends. The backyard fills up and the dads (my big brothers) do their best to splash as much water out of the pool as possible doing jack knives, cannon balls, and the preacher's seat. The food is always plentiful and delicious amd the desserts are never ending (which reminds me, I forgot to hand out the red, white, and blue popsicles!) 

Every July 4th is highly anticipated by my currently 8-yr-old daughter, but not in a good way. She can't stand fireworks or firecrackers. Once it gets dark, she sits in the house and watches a movie so she doesn't have to hear the noise.  We light off fire crackers and the kids do sparklers and throw those loud little popping things at everyone's feet. And her fearful little self misses out on it every year. 

This year was the first year I pushed it with her. Just a little. I explained that she was missing something fun by staying in the house. But I further explained that I didn't want her to look back one day and regret not coming out to watch the fireworks. And perhaps this year she could put on Daddy's noise-canceling headphones and watch.

And she did!! 

And she was SO excited!! She started out sitting behind the whole group but eventually she was right there on the sidewalk with sparklers and wanting to light some firecrackers herself! It was so neat to watch the happiness on her face as she watched the firecrackers for the first time. 

Makes you wonder: how often do we avoid God's pushing and prodding because of fear? He's behind us telling us how much we'll enjoy it and we are too afraid to take a step forward. And when we finally do, we wonder why it took so long to go in that direction?!

That God of ours, He sure does know what He's doing. Now if we would just listen to Him the first time!