Do you know that to be Brave, you must first be Afraid? Self-protection is our first response as humans to threat. Brave is not needed in a space that is without adversity. You exchange Afraid for Brave when there is no choice, but action.

Last summer, a dear friend asked to make a website for my books. It has taken me 25 years to admit I write anything that people will want to read, much less putting a cover on it. I had some Christian fiction books in my computer and, most recently, non-fiction writings. Now she wanted to put it in an internet storefront.

For people

to buy,

to read,

to leave comments.

I told her I didn’t really want to. Secretly, I felt terrified. This was the same type of terror that you feel in a school bus dream where you discover you are naked.

She said that she would build a website and I could use it or not. It was up to me.

I was peppered with questions. Don’t you speak at women’s conferences? Don’t you create spiritual warfare artwork? Would there be a blog?

A couple weeks later, she showed me what she’d pulled together, I was stunned.

I was looking at an overview of what the Holy Spirit has been creating in me in my lifetime through my trust and brave in Him. Believe it or not, I had no idea that the spiritual artwork had anything to do with the books or speaking engagements. The Blog was fleshed out with the weekly emails I had been sending to more than 100 readers for more than a year.

Each component was presented as a perfectly connecting puzzle piece. I was seeing God’s fingerprints all over my life and the masterpiece He’d created. I was in awe.

Then the struggle really began.

Was the artwork good enough?
Would the checkout system work?
Wouldn’t the books need another editing run through?
I needed a new headshot, but first I needed to lose weight
Was I being prideful? (Note to self: false humility is just as wrong)

On and on, just to name a few. Some concerns were true and needed addressing and some were delay tactics.

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ,
and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
2 Corinthians 2:14

In December, I had a person contact me who was seeking images to encourage women to fight in spiritual warfare. She’d heard about my Women of Valor art and needed it for a women’s conference in South Dakota this spring. I showed her what I had and got to see her reaction. She loved it.

I was to order 200 cards to place at each seat with my website listed on the back so that if anyone wanted to make a purchase, they could.

The very same website that was not live yet. The one that I hindered for months.

Thankfully, the Lord is so sweet and gentle with His nudges forward into uncertain territory.

It was time to make the website live.

You can visit www.Valor-Victory.com and see what God is doing in me. It is a work in progress, just as we all are.

I’m ready to be used to move the Body of Christ to action in spiritual warfare in any way He chooses. If this is the vehicle God is using, let me be an armored tank with guns a blazing!!