Today I told my daughter “Fear is not your friend. Scrapes and bumps are part of the game of life.”

Mind you, all she was doing was learning to ride her bike with training wheels. She’d taken quite a tumble a few minutes prior while going down a steep incline. When she fell I held her close and soothed her, and the first thing I said after the wails had quieted was: “You know what, though??? You did AWESOME!!! I am so proud of you for going down that hill, even though it was hard to do.”

I want my children to know and accept that life is hard. Sometimes it’s complete shit, but I don’t say it to them like that at this stage of life. I just give them gentle reminders that scrapes & bumps will happen; there will be sad days; there will be disappointments and foibles; there will be mistakes and down-right naughtiness; life will kick you in the pants. Life can be so hard.

But before they accept that ^ I want them to know that they are loved, they are cherished, they are wanted, they are known, they are accepted, they are awesome. The hard things will get us down, but it won’t get us down so bad if we know the Truth. And the Truth is always- God made you, God loves you, God forgives you, God wants you, God redeems you.

Fear cannot be the driving force behind how we live. The Truth has to be the driving factor. Fear cripples us. But the Truth always sets us free.

In the hands of the potter,