Every week Vic and I have a bible study in our home on Wednesdays. We worship, pray and one of us teaches a lesson given to us by our pastor. We love opening our home and being able to pray together and dive into the word of God with others.  It was my turn to teach this week and I studied it, prayed, and asked God to speak through me. Little did I know that He would speak to me as I taught! The lesson was about courage and the Bible verse we focused on was one of my favorites, Joshua 1:9. The verse says “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Pretty straight forward, right?

As I taught and shared my heart, God was speaking to me and I really feel that I should share with all of you as well. How many times do we have to make difficult decisions? How often is it that we are stepping into the unknown? Will we run when we are faced with challenges, or stand firm knowing that God is behind us? This spoke to my heart and as I later found out, it spoke to Vic as well. As photographers trying to push a small business forward, everyday is unknown. There are things we still aren’t sure about, goals we aren’t sure we will reach, and constant thoughts of “Will we ever be good enough?” These thoughts are normal to have, but we cannot allow it to consume us and bring fear into our lives.

Courage is not the absence of fear. It isn’t the feeling of not being afraid, as a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite. Courage is being afraid but not letting it stop you from achieving your goal. Something that was written in the Bible study class that really moved me was “Purpose is fuel for courage” Holy Toledo! Talk about truth! When you have no purpose, no goals, no drive, there will be no courage to accompany it. You end up living in fear of the unknown, instead of getting out there and taking a risk. If Vic and I didn’t know that this business was 100% from God, if we didn’t know that it is our calling and purpose in life, we would have backed out a long time ago!

This road has not been an easy one. There have been many nights full of frustration, times where we have felt hopeless and many, many tears. But I am not telling you this so you can have pity on us. I’m saying this because last night I realized that although we have faced, and I’m sure will continue to face many challenges, we are praying that God will fill us with courage. That although we are afraid, we can move past it and step into the unknown, knowing that God is behind us and He alone is the one who can see us through. I’m not sure why I was led to write this today, but I hope that it speaks to at least one person reading this. And if you forget on any given day, always remember Joshua 1:9, because God is with you wherever you go.

Happy Thursday friends!