Facing the dog.

For all you Facebook friends I tagged in this, you'll know why I did at the end of this post. I hope you enjoy this.

I realized an awesome truth today as I was spending some time with God. I read in Psalm 71:20 "You, who made me stare trouble in the face, turn me around." and I thought, Wow, that's a really interesting thing to say to God. Then almost immediately a short memory came back into my mind.

My family lived in Seattle for a few years. You wouldn't know it now, but back when I was a kid, I was deathly afraid of dogs. Well, I was about 8 years old, and one day while riding my bike, I came across this huge, beastly, deathly dog! And he thought it would be fun to chase me on my bike and bark madly and insanely at me. So I fly home and run inside screaming bloody murder. My parents were at home and had no idea what could be causing my outburst besides some serial killer on the loose coming after me. When they found out it was about a dog, they didn't just comfort me and say "It's OK." No, I remember my dad taking me back outside where that beast was still hanging around waiting to chomp my arm off! Dad got the scary thing to come over to me, and at this time I was convinced my dad had suddenly turned evil and had a weird desire to harm me by this! But he proved me wrong. Trembling and clutching on for dear life to my dad, I reached out, and at his encouragement, I pet the dog! After a few seconds, that beast turned into a fluffy friend. He licked me and let me pet him and have fun with him. Since that day, I've never been afraid of dogs, but I love them (and the two I have at home!) so much. Thanks Dad!

This reminds me of so many verses about facing troubles and going through trials and doing the hard stuff! God doesn't let you see something scary or difficult or whatever and then just tell you not to worry about it. No, He wants you to face it! He doesn't want us to live in fear. Had my dad never taken me outside to pet the dog, I would still to this day be scared of them. And I had to trust in my dad, that he wasn't trying to hurt me, but help me! He loves me that much!

This can relate to a lot of things in life. I have to raise a huge amount of support for this summer, as many of you have to. Some people don't take chances on their summer plans because they are scared of raising support. That is plain fear! I don't think God wants us to be afraid of money. Yeah, raising support is scary and somewhat difficult. Maybe God wants you to face the scary beast and pet it so you aren't afraid of it anymore. Then you can start to like it, then you'll love it and begin to look forward to more encounters with them. What a cool truth!

So whatever you may be facing, remember that God might want to use it as an opportunity for you to trust Him. He is, after all, the Perfect One to trust and He loves you so much. So go out and pet the dog!

-Remember how scared Peter was when he walked on water? Jesus immediately saves Him and says, "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?"
-There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involved punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. -1John 4:18
-Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. -James 1:2-4