All of us want to be warrior moms, equipped to
alter the direction of our future and those little ones who follow us!
I am the least likely to be involved in foreign tribal missions or to author a series of Princess Books or anything else… because I am, ALSO…the one who crusades against her paralyzing fear.
How many of you have read, “Hinds Feet in High Places”? Well, …meet little “Much Afraid”! My fear has always been connected to my failing someone’s expectation …mostly God’s and of course, the fear of the unknown (as a young mom…raising my girls in the jungles, tribal people, isolation, vampire bats, huge hairy spiders, 13” scorpions…)!
I have a recent testimony of a young mom who has lived the majority of her parenting life worried that she is failing, scared that she is not doing enough, being enough or giving enough! Always comparing herself to the success of others…
Do you ever fear failure… as a mom… a wife…?
Just the responsibility of equipping our little ones
to survive victoriously in this perverse culture
should strike fear in our hearts!!
Coming to understand, that I need to fear only two things…has freed me to walk thru that door of dread…instead of running the other direction (my natural inclination)!!!
Can you guess what those two things might be?
1. The fear of God, who faithfully brings me to a particular: point, place or circumstance…to mature me spiritually…
2. The fear of the consequence of sin! Not failure… !
When you fear God you fear the consequence of sin!
When asked, “If you are so afraid, Jackie, WHY did you go into the jungles to open up a work among an Indian group that had never been reached before?”
My answer is simple… “That the lamb of God might receive the reward of His suffering!” I was aware of the need…I was compelled to go…FEAR AND ALL!
“To Him who knows to do right and does not do it to him it is sin! Jas.4:17
Focusing on “walking thru that door of fear with Him”,… allowing Him to live and lead through me was more scriptural and liberating, than focusing on what happens, if I fail and bear the prideful guilt of thinking… I should have done better …or done nothing at all! “The highway of fear is the shortest route to defeat.” Wm. L. Brownell
Fear is wrong focus! Trust in the wrong person!
One sultry day in the jungle I was sitting at my rustic desk crying when our partners walked in and asked, “What happened?” I proceeded to pour out my heart and confess how I was a total failure as a mother, wife, and missionary.
To my astonishment, my friend just SMILED and agreed with me saying, “Jackie, you are a failure“!
NOW, WHO SAYS THAT!!!
He proceeded with…BUT the good news is: You are now in perfect position to receive the grace of God with its power to live victoriously!” ONCE I GOT PAST THAT UNANTICIPATED SMILE(!)… I began to process the biblical truth and he was right. I could offer God nothing. Apart from His empowerment, on my own, “so to speak” - trying, striving, bent on achieving…
I am a ROYAL failure!
BUT THAT FAILURE has become my best friend over the years because I now had a recognizable signal when afraid and I could get out of God’s way so HE could do what I was unable to do!
“His grace is sufficient for me, for His power is made perfect in MY weakness! In failure! 2 Corinthians 12:9
My Husband, who calls it like it is… says “my weakness” is really “my strength in evil”!! Whatever it is called…I was free…at last…I could surrender to His leading and allow His strength to be made perfect in my weakness. I was finally at peace!
Where do you find your strength?
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
