Scary Mom vs. Super Mom

One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Timothy 1:7 which reads, “for God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” It was the first scripture that I taught Bear, our oldest, and I use it in prayer daily. I truly believe that God has not given me the spirit of fear, I have power through him, I love everyone, and my mind is equipped to make sound judgement calls and initiate self control. I walk boldly in faith knowing that God is always in control and I’m equipped to handle whatever comes my way.

However occasionally I’m reminded that I am still human. Sometimes I might find myself in a situation that causes me to feel nervous, anxious, or even scared. One such occasion occurred when I lifted up a laundry basket and saw a HUGE, three inch lizard sitting on my couch. At which point I screamed and quickly sprayed air freshener at it. Then, in order to protect myself and my son from this dinosaur, I immediately flipped all the couch cushions over.

I figured that wasn’t enough to ensure Godzilla was gone so I mustered up my SUPER HUMAN MOMMY STRENGTH and flipped over the couch. Next, I ferociously sprayed a Lavender Vanilla air freshener defense shield to ward off the HUMONGOUS three inch lizard. There might have been some screaming, praying aloud, and even a couple of tears as I battled the world’s largest small house gecko. I’m 100% sure those sounds and waterworks solely came from me.

My son Bear, who was four at the time, stood firm during all of this and said “Mama, God has not given us the spirit of fear.” I quickly replied, “that doesn’t to apply to lizards!” Then I cautiously scanned the living room to ensure our white, four-legged visitor was gone.

Even though I may have overreacted, I was still able to gather a lesson from my situation. I learned that I clearly have the power to lift couches. Eventually, I used my sound mind (self-control) to calm down because I realized that I’m bigger than the terrible lizard. I also used experience to teach my son what not to do when you’re scared. I reminded him that the little lizard was afraid of me too. Shall we say love caused me to spray my Lavender Vanilla air freshener defense system to protect my son?

But, when it came to the fear that God has not give us the spirit of… On this day, THE LIZARD WON.

But, my son did recite scripture to encourage and calm me down. So, you know what… I WON TOO!

#truestory

Lord, thank you for lessons learned from crazy encounters. Help me to be bolder when tiny lizards come my way and to show my children the right way to respond. And Lord, thank you for the scripture encouragement from my son. Years later he still shares uplifting words from the passages hidden in his heart. Help us to continue to make scripture memory a priority in our household. In the name of Jesus, Amen

This post came from a social media status update that popped up in my memories from five years ago. I definitely wanted to share the lesson from the experience and hope you enjoyed the anecdote.

To hear about how to put faith over fear, watch my challenge video.

This week be fearless,
Ta’Neisha K.