Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Bon Courage!

"Bon courage, Sadah, bon courage!" I was a melancholy little girl. I spent the Summers with my French grandmother and she would tell me stories from her life and then whisper in my ear, "Bon courage, Sadah, bon courage!"

She told me about her mother and how she had died when Grandmother was only eight years old. Her life as a child was difficult but there was both joy and sorrow mingled into her stories. She was a young woman in France during World War 1. Her first baby had died as an infant. She had found the courage to leave every thing familiar and come to America. She lived through the depression and then both her sons had enlisted to fight in World War 2. Grandmother understood courage.

I have read in books where women "take to their beds" instead of facing difficult periods of their life. I have a confession to make I have felt like crawling into bed and pulling the covers over my head on more than one occasion. Yesterday, for instance, I was reading through the events of last year and I felt an overwhelming desire to retreat.

I woke up this morning remembering what is felt like to be a young timid girl seeking refuge in my Grandmother's embrace. She was old but she was strong. She was, "like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."(Jeremiah 17:8)

Father, today I remember You and I take courage! I, like my Grandmother before me choose to be strong and very courageous. I choose to be like a tree planted by water sinking my roots deep into Your word.

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