Be Strong and Corageous

That's been our mantra for Amelia as she headed off to her first day of Kindergarten. I figured she'd be fine going to school, excited, independent, ready to take on the world. Well, I guess I was wrong. She cried (a lot) at meet the teacher and has talked about how nervous she is. When asked why she's nervous she says, "I'm afraid I won't make any friends and that I won't do a good job on my homework." Man, is she me or what? I remember the same fears. Not from kindergarten but changing elementary schools, going to Junior High, Senior High, College and starting new jobs.

Well, in His infinite wisdom God used His Word to speak to our family this past week. Of course He did :) Last week for the high school Bible study that we lead we studied Joshua. We read about what God told Joshua right before he lead a huge group of people into the promised land. BIG JOB! Well, we talked to Amelia about what God told Joshua right before his big event. We asked her, "Do you have a big event coming up?" "Yes- going to kindergarten." So we read her the following verse from Joshua 1:9

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

"Well, what do you think?" we asked. She said, "Can we read it again at breakfast before I leave for school? So I can remember it all day long." And no joke, she has been reciting that verse all weekend getting ready for school. So today we read it again, gathered our courage and headed out the door. They were some bumps along the way, and she was nervous for sure, but I could see her little mind working that verse over and over again.

I'm excited to pick her up and see how her first day went. What she liked, what she didn't like and if she ate her lunch! I'm just so thankful that we can hide God's Word in our hearts, that we have access to Bibles, that we have access to education so we can read our Bibles, and that God wants to speak to us. I would have never ever in a million years picked that one verse out of that huge book to give her comfort. But God did and that's what makes it so awesome.

PS- sorry about the italics- something funky is going on with blogspot...