Brave

Brave is a bit of a buzzword these days. Or maybe the word is as common as it ever was, and it's just buzzing my ears more than ever. 

Last March, I attended a one-day ladies' conference at Miracle Christian Center, the church I grew up in. The theme? Brave.

In April, I'm attending a ladies' retreat with Second Baytown, the church I've been attending for a few months. The theme? Brave.

I planned to attend both of these before I ever knew the theme, and it JUST dawned on me tonight, 2 months after registering for the Second retreat, that they had/have the same theme.

See, Second's conference is 100 days away, and leading up to it we are reading the daily devotional called 100 Days to Brave. I just started it tonight, so I have no idea if it's Earth shattering or a waste of my $10 and 10 minutes a day, but at the very least, it's gotten me thinking.

What does brave mean? I tell Jay often: Brave is being a scared, but doing "it" anyway, whatever "it" may be that has you scared. 

Brave is looking ahead to where you want to be, making a commitment to get there no matter what, and then sticking to your commitment even when it gets hard. Brave is not letting the buts get in the way. "I want to do this, but I might not be any good at it. I want to go there, but I have small children. I would love to have that, but money is tight." There are always buts behind dreams; brave is pursuing those dreams anyway.

Sometimes brave means giant leaps forward. Sometimes brave means tiny baby steps, or even crawling. Sometimes brave means dusting yourself off and starting over again when you've bailed on your goals. 

So I'm asking myself tonight, what does brave look like in my life? What does it look like in yours?