My older daughter has four children. They happen to be boy/girl/boy/girl in birth order. The two oldest are two years apart in age. From the time she was about two, Cate was in competition with her big brother. She was completely confident that anything he could do, so could she. Which led to her sometimes getting herself into a pickle. Trying to carry something too heavy for her. Climbing a tree and then not knowing how to get down. Jumping into the deep end of a pool. Convincing their father that she should go on a hike with him and her brother. In the Smokey Mountains. On a trail that required some rock climbing and had some pretty steep dropoffs. Daddy ended up carrying her some of the way. With Cate protesting the entire time that she could do it herself.
Her courage hasn’t wavered in the entire seventeen years of her life, so far. She still climbs trees way too high for her grandmother’s liking. She goes to the gun range with her dad and brothers and rivals Annie Oakley in being a sure shot. She doesn’t hesitate to swing on a rope far out over a river and drop in. Yet she’s also very much a girly girl. She loves make-up, high heels, fancy glue-on nails. And all forms of dance. With her long red hair and pale skin, she looks like an Irish warrior princess. I call her Cate the Intrepid.
Her little sister, who’s seven years her junior, is equally brave and confident. Always up for a challenge. She was doing flips on the trampoline when she was a toddler. She takes tumbling and cheer lessons. Her current goal is to be a “flyer” on the school cheerleading squad. Jumping off the high dive is her favorite way to enter the pool.
Growing up with older brothers has likely had a positive impact on these two fearless granddaughters. As well as encouragement from their parents, who want all four of them to know their strengths, boldly face hard tasks, and believe in themselves.
In his second letter to his protégé Timothy, Paul writes many words of encouragement. Paul has been imprisoned for his evangelism, his teaching that Jesus is the Christ and the promised Messiah, and that the Romans are responsible for killing the Son of God. Paul knows he is unlikely to leave prison alive.
Paul and Timothy have become so close that Paul refers to him as his son. Early on in their relationship Timothy was shy to speak in public and timid about becoming a leader. But, by the time of this letter he has accepted his calling as a teacher and a leader. In 2 Timothy 1:7 Paul tells Timothy that God has not given him a “spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” He wants Timothy to “fan into flame these gifts from God.”
I have never been much of a risk-taker. I’m not spontaneous. I’m a planner, an organizer, a think-aheader (I’m pretty sure that’s a word). So, I’m not likely to start now at the age of 66 to jump from the rope swing, go cave diving, or get myself stuck way up in a tree. But I recognize that God has given me some gifts and talents and I’m trying to fan them into flame. Knowing first-hand that life is short and time is precious:
I’m going to try a little harder to be intrepid.
Laura
A Light for My Path 
Leave a comment