Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear......

I'm turning it into a song (sung to the tune of a marching beat like The Ants Go Marching):

Fear, fear, fear, fear
Fear, fear, fear, fear

I am not proud, but it's become my mantra. I repeat it non-stop.

Fear, fear, fear, fear
Fear, fear, fear, fear

Ok, so I don't actually sing it. I have engaged more in living it. Yuck.

I write about all the things to fear and the reasons God calls us to be bold, and yet, last night I was terrified. I had a pain. It's in a very girly location so I won't offer TMI and describe it, but it scared me, so I googled it. I should know better by now, but I couldn't help it. The google results were anything less than comforting, so I cried myself to sleep and called the doctor in the morning.

She's a wonderful doctor/midwife. She asked me questions and took my concern seriously and then gave me very real reasons not to worry, but signs to watch for just in case.

I tell you this body is changing so much! When I first started to feel Dia move, I didn't know what it was! I immediately figured it was a ruptured placenta. See, the song had snuck in...

Fear, fear, fear, fear
Fear, fear, fear, fear

And to be honset, there ARE lots of things to be afraid of. I am watching my government change in scary ways. I got an email yesterday about parental rights and the threat the future may pose to home-schooling. Sometimes I figure that all Christians will be living more like the Jews in early Nazi Germany--marginalized into ghettos and slowly forced into concentration camps. I have had the actual thought that it doesn't matter how well Dia does in school because by the time she's old enough to go to college, we'll be wearing gold stars and on our way to the ghetto.

Fear, fear, fear, fear
Fear, fear, fear, fear

Last night, though, I was talking candidly to a wonderful woman whose miracle grandson was just born this last weekend. She said that when she was pregnant, she believed that the rapture would occur before her kids got old enough to go to college. But here we are, just fine.

She stopped me in my tracks. I've had that exact thought!

I think I found comfort in hearing her words. But then a few hours later, I googled. And the fear hit. My dear sweet kind loving best friend of the same name sent me texts of comfort and wisdom last night and I got a good night's sleep plus lots of reassuring belly kicks. Then this morning another dear sweet kind loving friend prayed words of power and faith over the phone. I wish I could live in the texts and that phone call. Actually, I think I am supposed to be living there--between the Word, the Holy Spirit and community.

I have learned a lot about the "tapes" that play in our head. From our nature and upbringing, our thoughts replay themselves over and over again in our head without any wisdom or discernment. They simply are. It's our job to learn to identify them and record over them. I am going to use my friends' words and the Holy Word to do just that.

Until "Fear, fear, fear, fear" becomes

Faith, faith, faith, faith.........