A video if you prefer to watch/listen than read

This is what I see on my walk this morning.  It is almost a 2ft. copperhead, 10ft in front of me.  It has its head up and totally frozen.  We are both frozen, likely due to fear.  Seeing the copperhead stopped me dead in my tracks.  Thankfully not actually dead because it bit me;).  I am not moving.  I do not know what I should do.  Do I throw something near it to scare it away into the grass?  Do I just walk around it?  So I just stand there frozen.  About a minute later I see a neighbor is jogging barefoot right towards it.  I call out, “Sir, watch out there is a copperhead.”  He nonchalantly grabs a giant limb he found and starts to nudge it back into the forest.  No jumping or squealing with fear like I would be if I moved the snake out of the road.  Number one- I would have never done that.  I am too much of a giant chicken butt.

This dude had no fear.  After removing the snake he tells me, “I have already killed 5 this year (it is only august).  For the copperhead population there is usually only 1 per acre but many more this year.  There are fighting for territory.  They are going after the mice.  So if you have mice, deal with those.  Don’t bother the black snakes.  They eat the mice and fight off the copperheads.  None of the home remedies work to keep them out of your yard.  Just take care of the mice and be careful in the grass (leaves, pine needles etc.).  Just give them 4 or 5 feet, they will not normally strike at you.”

I am trying to walk a mile most mornings.  It is mostly for my soul.  I love the silence and solitude (why we need to press pause).  It is a time I can let go of things I am fretting over.  It is freeing to release these worries/fears in prayer.  On this walk I am talking a lot with God about my fears and my tendency to live in a place of fear (check out this book I have been reading about developing a conversational relationship with God, watch the 1st short video).  Over the past 2 years I feel like God has opened my eyes to see how much fear controls me.  Fear of others opinions, fear of the future, fear of death, fear of sickness, and the list goes on.  The past month the word freedom and fear keep coming to me.  I have so much more to share how God has been speaking so clearly to me on that.  I am realizing that God want me to walk in freedom and not fear.

So while on my walk I am praying about how I can go about walking in freedom and not fear.  I am feeling led to look up and highlight all the verses on fear in my Bible.  I once heard that there are over 200 commands of “Do not fear.”  Why does He tell us this so much in His word (the Bible) because he knows our human tendency to be paralyzed by fear.  So that is my first step in this freedom from fear journey.  I’ll share more as I learn more. 🙂

Side note: My hubby is my hero.  I am so technology challenged.  He patiently took 15 minutes to walk me through how to get this picture from my phone to my blog.  It is amazing how he can see my computer screen while at work and also take control of it and do it all while being miles away. Mind blowing!

Awesome song for when my fear is crippling