THOUGHTS OF A MILITARY WIFE WITH FIVE CHILDREN – HEATHER TRAVITZ

“When you live life with honesty and courage nothing is out of reach.”

MILITARY WIFE/WRITER HEATHER TRAVITZ

Heather Travitz

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What is COURAGE?

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.  ~Raymond Lindquist

My personal definition of courage would be the ability to do or be your BEST as you face fear and uncertainty in all areas of life. Courage can be loud or soft, and I’ve found the latter can be more difficult for me personally. When presented with the need oftimes of quiet courage, I quite often think of the old saying, “Keep Calm and Carry on”. Other times, wejust ‘live out loud” and make our voices heard! When we are not courageous, we give others our personalpower and they will have a hand in the play by play of OUR lives! Living courageously, whether loud or quiet, can be daunting, but is necessary to successfully live our dreams and fulfill our destiny and potential for greatness!

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.  ~Ambrose Redmoon

Courage is a soldier leaving his family to fight in a war far from home!

Courage is saying NO!

Courage is standing up against an abuser!

Courage is forgiving the unforgivable to free yourself!

Courage is speaking up when you feel strongly!

Courage is asking for what you need!

Courage is pursuing your dreams even if no one else sees them yet!

Courage is sharing your beliefs when you may be ridiculed for what you believe!

Courage is also keeping quiet when you know your words will fall on deaf ears!

Courage is standing up for what is right, even if you stand alone!

There are two real life types of courage in life, physical and moral.  Both are important. Being brave and bold in both of these areas as you live is clear courage.

Physical courage is demonstrated when you face your fear, pain or hardship!

Moral courage is how you act according to your morals and beliefs in the face opposition or disbelief.

Being courageous in no way means you are fearless, it means that in spite of your fear, you will stand up and fight for what you feel and know is right. Even when that means others may turn against you. When this happens, it typically will turn out better than you may think possible.

As hard as it may be to believe at the time, these acts of courage will enrich your life! They will help you remove the toxins in your life that are secretly bringing you down or dragging you away from your beliefs! And, in turn, when we surround ourselves with like-minded and successfully determined people, we will raise our own bar for courage and success!

1 Corinthians 16:13 NET “Stay alert, stand firm in the faith, show courage, be strong”

 We must face events with courage to truly live! Being bold and standing firm with our personal and spiritual beliefs is a must! As you begin to live life in a courageous way, there are always going to be trials and hardships to be faced. But you can be assured that these are worth the effort at the end of each day!

As we live boldly and face hurdles and hardships with courage, it is imperative that we use our faith in times of physical or emotional need!

FAITH DEMANDS COURAGE!

Personally, I have been praying about a situation in my life, and as I am writing this, and doing some reflection, I see that I am not facing the situation with courage due to ongoing feelings of powerlessness (that attack us all, if we are honest). So I am looking now for ways of creating MORE power, for myself and my husband. Ways, Where we can be included in decisions that are being made and our voices will be heard. {If I find my courage, I know that no matter the outcome, I will have faced the situation head on and my voice will be heard!}So, even before finishing this article, I was compelled to make contact with those in this situation, to speak up, using respect and facts to make our stance clear! ….. I can’t describe the feeling of empowerment of that one action!

So, as you can see, it is important that we use courage as a stepping stone in life! In doing this, it will bring strength and success in the areas of life that we wish to achieve it! We will still have trials and hurdles to face, but when we are willing to push ourselves past those things; we will finally live in honor and for ourselves and our God! When we use courage to direct us in life, not fear of failure or pain, we will soar to heights we’ve never known possible!

Courage builds character and confidence! Unlocking your courage will open doors you didn’t know were closed! When you live life with honesty and courage nothing is out of reach. Our paths are already carved; success is ours to be had! Have the COURAGE to live the dream God has placed in your heart! Don’t allow fears or past failures to bury it!

Remember, When you live life with honesty and courage nothing is out of reach!

POSTED BY PERMISSION OF HEATHER TRAVITZ AND ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY GUTSISTHEKEY 

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH

Most of us will never come face to face with a brother or sister in Christ, from another country, who faces regular and constant persecution by evil – day after day… month after month….year after year….decade after decade!

My good longtime friend and brother in Christ, “P” (not his real name, for obvious reasons) is such a man. Having known this man for about 5 years, am amazed not just at his resilience, but his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

P comes from a family of Christians who have been adopted by a network of local churches in a military pagan Buddhist country not far from India. Persecution range from imprisonment, seizing of property, withholding Bibles, beatings, discrimination in employment and just plain brutality.

But he stands up to them, just as Stephen stood up to the Pharisees…or Peter right after Pentecost. The buddhists are always telling him he is bowing down to Americans, thinking they are insulting him. He then has the chance to tell them he is not bowing down to American Christians but to Christ, the Good News which American missionaries bring!

He then asks them, “where is the Good News of the buddha? Where is it?” Of course they can’t answer that because there is not  a shred of Good News in either buddha, islam or any of the new earth/new age garbage promoted by Oprah by ungodly cultists like Eckhart Tolle, Rhonda Byrne, Deepak Chopra and other anti-Christian writers.

Still the persecution P and his people suffer, as harsh and brutal as it is, pales into comparison to what is done to Christians in deepest, darkest African with Christians stuffed into containers in Eritrea. Christians are murdered and their homes burned in Uganda, Nigeria and we all saw the Egyptian islamic regime run over and kill 37 Coptic Christians with tanks weeks ago. …

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AND SPECIFIC PRAYER NEEDS FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH TODAY AND THIS WEEK