(Photo Credit: Frankie Rhodes propping a picture for mom)

The only time Frankie hits the panic mode is if he happens to wake up and his door is closed and then as he is opening it, he somehow locks it and just can’t figure out how to open it again.  And seriously all PANIC breaks out.  He totally knows how to unlock the door but if it’s as if he shuts down.  It’s happened a few times and each time the same reaction.

I wonder on his past and what about a locked door that triggers him to fear.  Is it the fear of being left behind?  The fear of not knowing why the door was locked?  The fear of not being able to get out?  I get the door unlocked, I quickly comfort him and tell him not to worry and that he’s ok.  And then he jumps out of my arms and is on  his way to the next thing awaiting him.

As I was thinking about his reaction, I could not help but think of myself and a similar pattern I display too.  Not fear over a physical door in our home being locked but fear over doors that close and lock that I have no control over in my life or in the life of the ministry we are a part of.  It’s typical and normal but you’ll be going through your day and one day things are fine and the next day you wake up and discover a door is locked.  How it happened or why is hardly ever my first response.  I’m just panicked and waiting for it to unlock or another way out to be determined so that I or we can get on with what we are doing.

There are lots of things this coming year that we will only be able to move forward IF God chooses to unlock some doors for us.  Both personally and also ministry.  And with each day I’m really trying to take peace in letting control go of what I would envision to what God wants to do in us and through us.  I am constantly aware of how tThose are two very different things. 

My daily prayer has turned into a verse from 2 Timothy and truly trying to live that out in my life while also trying to teach my children that as well.

2 Timothy 1:7 – For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.