{"id":3275,"date":"2015-06-03T11:40:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T16:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?p=3275"},"modified":"2015-06-12T14:17:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T19:17:25","slug":"do-it-even-if-youre-afraid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/06\/do-it-even-if-youre-afraid.html","title":{"rendered":"Do It Even If You&#8217;re Afraid!"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2015\/05\/blue-sky-with-clouds.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3202 \" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2015\/05\/blue-sky-with-clouds-300x227.jpg\" alt=\"blue-sky-with-clouds\" width=\"419\" height=\"227\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/costofacoveredgirl.weebly.com\/blog\/do-it-even-if-youre-afraid\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Cost of a Covered Girl<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Since I was 7 years old I\u2019ve lived with this deep sense of fear. I\u2019ve been told it\u2019s the \u201cunbeautiful\u201d part of having the beautiful gift of strong discernment. Over the years this fear has taken me on a crazy emotional rollercoaster ride from fear of fire ants (don\u2019t judge me they bite!) to a constant fear of death.\u00a0 This fear has sometimes paralyzed me from walking in the true authority God has given me. Afraid that I would fail miserably, there are some ideas I have tucked away in the back of my heart.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As I reflected on this thought I discovered that this same fear has driven me to be an exceptional mother (if I do say so myself and I do!) As an 18 year old single mother I vowed that my children would be amazing. I vowed that my girls would be leaders and world changers that have an awesome sense of gratitude, mercy and compassion. I vowed that they would be critical thinkers and problem solvers. As two of my daughters have matriculated through high school I see that my fear not to be the stereotypical young single mother has paid off. Jasmine is in college doing well and Abria has finished strong at her private school and is on her way to college.<\/span><br style=\"color: #96a2a6;\"><br style=\"color: #96a2a6;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">After this reflective time I made a decision to cut back on how much time and energy I give mistakes, disappointment, failures, and offenses and focus on where God is moving and what God is doing in my life and in our world. I made a decision to accept the fact that I would probably fail at many things and that those failures could help me figure out what not to do the next go round. I\u2019ve decided to believe that I really am the beloved of Christ and with Him for me it\u2019s more than all the world against me. I\u2019ve also decided that I\u2019m going to do what I\u2019m called to do and live out my dreams EVEN if I have to do it afraid! God has invested to much in me to do anything else. Besides, who knows what my fear may prepare me for or propel me to?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Are you struggling with fear? Fear of failure? Fear of success? Fear of loneliness? Fear of not being good enough? Whatever your fear is, I want to challenge you to live out purpose on purpose. Do what you know you should be doing even if you have to do it afraid!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/costofacoveredgirl.weebly.com\/blog\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Rev. NaKeesha Weston<\/span><\/a> is a\u00a0lover of Jesus Christ, die hard mother of 3, family oriented woman and believes that God has given her a story that will encourage other women.\u00a0<em>She blogs at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/costofacoveredgirl.weebly.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Cost of a Covered Girl<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted at The Cost of a Covered Girl Since I was 7 years old I\u2019ve lived with this deep sense of fear. I\u2019ve been told it\u2019s the \u201cunbeautiful\u201d part of having the beautiful gift of strong discernment. Over the years this fear has taken me on a crazy emotional rollercoaster ride from fear of fire [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[92,93,708,16],"class_list":["post-3275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections","tag-fear","tag-nakeesha-weston","tag-reflections","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Do It Even If You&#039;re Afraid!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Posted at The Cost of a Covered Girl Since I was 7 years old I&#039;ve lived with this deep sense of fear. 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