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Timid?


For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

          Today has been a hard day. It’s almost dinner time and I haven’t gotten to work on any of the things I wanted to get done, except choir practice, finding my phone, and mowing the lawn. I should have taken a nap, but I took caffeine (iced tea) instead. I feel like crawling under a rock and hiding for a couple centuries.  I’m not alone. A friend posted that she feels inferior today. I think that the term “timid” might do well for both of us.
         Most people would probably laugh at the notion that I feel timid. Others might want to scold me using today’s passage. God hasn’t given us a spirit of timidity. If I’m afraid, I must not be in God’s will.
          But there is something in my feeling timid that makes it useful, because my experience of things like timidity make it possible for me to reach out to others who are feeling timid or inferior. My feeling timid does not mean that I am timid. My feelings do not speak the truth. I’ve been told that some people feel afraid or feel oppressed, and because they feel it, the cause of the fear and the oppression must be real, but relying on our feelings as the guide to truth leads to living a lie. 
          I may feel like a failure, but that does not make me a failure. Feeling inferior doesn’t make inferior any more than feeling superior makes you better than everyone else. 
          But God’s Spirit gives us power, love, and self-discipline. If we would only just plant this tree in our minds and let it grow.

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