Forget Fear! Live Life!by Shelly Hohenthaner Have you noticed little children have no fear? I remember my children when they were young; Kaleigh seemed to have a death wish. Nothing scared her; she would do whatever came to mind. Her favorite thing to do when she turned about 11 months was to jump in her crib when she woke  up every morning. She would bounce and bounce and laugh trying to wake up her brother in the crib across from her. We didn’t worry too much. We’d let her bounce while we got dressed and prepared for the day, until one day the bouncing stopped and it became very quiet. We went in to check on her and there she was hanging onto her brother’s crib giggling and looking like the cat that had just eaten the canary. Kaleigh had figured out if she bounced just right she could make the metal part that held up the mattress detach, and the mattress would drop on one end and she could slip out undetected. Now as parents, fear flooded us as we thought of all of the things that could happen to her, she could get caught between the mattress and frame and choke to death, shock herself by sticking her finger in a light socket (because Kaleigh had already discovered how to remove the safety plugs on the outlets), or any number of horrible things. But Kaleigh wasn’t worried about those formalities. She had discovered a way to have another adventure. She continued to do this no matter what Andy tried to do to fix the problem until she had us trained to hear (even in the deepest sleep) the first bounce she made. Kaleigh was also our child who decided to try flying off the top bunk at 2 ½ years old after watching our 2 parrots fly around the house. She was sure if she flapped hard enough her arms would carry her through the house with no repercussions. Unfortunately, 12 stitches later, she found out the hard way that man was not meant to fly without the aid of an airplane. But that did not stop her from trying many other ways to turn our hair gray and age us beyond our years. For the first 8 years of her life we racked up the emergency room bills and logged a lot of prayer time in heaven. I see this same fearlessness in the children that inhabit our home now; our 7 year old has no concept of danger. He will roll down hills into oncoming traffic and go up to complete strangers and give them hugs. The baby when excited to see you in the morning will jump down a flight of stairs to get in your arms. Although after several tumbles, she has learned that maybe walking is a better way to get down. But she still exhibits that embracing of life, that “no worries” attitude that causes her to climb up on chairs to balance on the arms or jump from heights into your arms with no fear of not being caught. For some reason I am able to enjoy this more than I used to when mine were young, maybe it is because I have realized how much fear has stopped me from having that same exuberance to step off of scary places and allow God to catch me. I am seeing that I had allowed the worries and fears of the world to keep me from experiencing that adrenaline rush that you get when you take a risk or try something new for the first time. Life seems to teach us that trusting too much can cause hurt or pain, taking risks whether financially, physically, or spiritually can have consequences that sometimes don’t always turn out the way we think they should. It seems that doing something simple- even walking down the street- can have a bad ending. I know that from falling several times in the past years on ice. Several years ago I was leaving a restaurant with a friend after lunch and slipped on what appeared to be dry pavement with a blanket of snow covering. It was actually sheet ice underneath and there was no stopping the fall. I ended up suffering several years of incredible pain having broken my shoulder and then transitioning into frozen shoulder. After that I was almost paralyzed with fear when the snow fell and ice began to form. I quit walking outside in the winter and would walk like a 90 year old woman when I did venture out. Eventually, after much prayer for release from this fear I stopped worrying about my footing in winter. I took precautions but stopped worrying about every step. Then the unthinkable happened: I fell again, this time the only thing that was really hurt was my pride but I learned a valuable lesson that day. I can’t stop things from happening to me and my family, but with prayer and God’s love, I can overcome anything that comes my way. I didn’t need to be afraid of what might happen, but rather be prepared in my heart and with the Word of God if they did happen. I thank God for my children that have and are still teaching me that it is never too late to grasp life with total abandonment and enjoy every moment that we are given. I don’t recommend waxing the bottom of your shoes so you can hit the ice-covered driveway, but don’t be afraid to take that leap of faith when God says jump. We need to rediscover the child in all of us that doesn’t know what the word fear means and live our lives to the fullest that God has for each of us. I don’t know if I will be bungee jumping off any bridges or parasailing off a mountaintop but I know that God has exciting things for me if I am willing to be that fearless child of God, ready to leap when He says go. We need to live with abandonment and embrace everything that God places in our path whether it’s good or bad. It is when we face those things we fear and conquer them that we find that life is well worth the living and we don’t have to just exist until God’s return! | 
