But then Stacia posted the definition of bravery, and I had an idea. "Bravery can mean: courage, the human condition to confront pain and fear." I have not had any huge, life changing moments of bravery such as Danyelle, Tiffani, Stacia, or Alicia. They are brave women. But I have done some things that were not easy, or that I was afraid to do, or that I am particularly proud of. So here is my list of 5 things that forced me to confront pain or fear....- I have had 4 natural births with absolutley no pain killers and no epidurals. Now let me be clear about one thing. I do not look down on those who have used pain killers or have had epidurals. They just weren't for me. My labors were short, all of the babies were born within 2 1/2 hours of my water breaking. But they were INTENSE! There were basically NO breaks between contractions, just one after another after another. But when all was said and done, I knew that I had the ability to get through each one. On my own.
- April 1994. Brandon came to 1st ward to speak about his mission and the accident that changed his life. I was very impressed. And he was so cute. So what is a girl to do? I went up and introduced myself to him after sacrament meeting. I was only 17 and a senior in high school. The rest is history. A kind of brave thing to do.
- I gave a friend a Book of Mormon with my testimony in it, I had wanted to do this for probably 4 years. It took me that long to get the courage up to do it. She eventually took the discussions and was baptized by my brother. Now that friend is my Sister in law. Crazy huh?
- About a year ago, I knew the time was coming to have "the talk" with Madeline. You know, birds and bees? Well, I was pretty much terrified to do it. But, I prayed about it and felt comforted and knew that it could be a very good experience. So I did it, and it felt really good to have that very open dialogue with my daughter. Yes, it was scary. No, I haven't had the talk with Jocelyn. That will happen next week. Courage, here we go again.
- Recently, a story about Brandon and I appeared in the local newspaper. Well, while shooting for the picture, there was an incident where I had the opportunity to flex my bravery muscles. The photo shoot was at a local jazz club. Inside the jazz club, there was a wine bar. The owner of the jazz club asked us if we would like some wine. We said "No thanks, we don't drink." Then his wife from the wine bar said "How about some grape soda?", we said sure. The only problem was she put the grape soda in wine glasses. I said to Brandon, "This is NOT o.k. with me", so then he asked for her to put the soda in different glasses, and she kind of gave us a hard time. She said, "It's only for a picture", and "what, you don't want your family to think you were drinking alcohol?" I told her basically, yes! In the picture it would look like we were drinking wine. Not good. Imagine... primary president with picture of wine glasses filled with liquid that looks like wine. Well, this experience really taught me a lesson. The appearance of evil is just as bad as the evil itself, and we have to stand up for our beliefs, no matter what others may think.
So there it is, the extent of my bravery. But one thing that I think is important to remember is that we are strong, powerful people who have many opportunities to show courage and bravery, sometimes they are small, everyday things, sometimes they are big, life changing trials.
Todays song of the day really has nothing to do with this post, I just really like it!
