Brave

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. (Acts 4:29)

Sunrise above clouds, somewhere west of Augusta, GA.

(Posted on May 20.)

Today was the honors ceremony for the fifth graders at my daughter's school. They're all graduating from elementary school and heading into middle school next year.

My daughter had a rough year. While her school was open for in-person learning all year, it was still a challenge--masks, social distancing, lunches in classrooms, periodic quarantines, and the fear, always the fear, of infecting or being infected. She never felt like she "fit in" with the group in her homeroom class, and it didn't help that this is the year that the completely cliquish, popular/unpopular nature of tweendom reared its ugly head, leaving Scout and others feeling a more intense desire to belong. Add to that a kid who tormented her on the bus and in class every chance he got, and losing her best friend toward the end of the year (I'm still not sure what happened there), and our whole family is ready to bid a not-entirely-fond farewell to fifth grade.

All of that being said, she had some great teachers and an amazing principal that we will truly miss once we've moved on.

Today's word is brave, and I'm feeling the need to pray for Scout to have courage as she prepares for middle school. I think it's partly because I know how hard middle school was for me (particularly 7th grade), and partly because I can see her struggling the same way I did, only she hit the struggles a year or so earlier.

I've done a terrible job of raising her with any kind of a faith foundation, and I don't know that I can make up for it this summer, or if I should even try. She'll be going to several overnight camps and day camps over the next 11 weeks--such is the life of a kid whose parents both have full-time jobs. So I won't even see her all that much. I'm thankful that the camps don't allow electronics, and so she won't be flipping on the TV or grabbing my phone for a few minutes of texting and YouTube every time I turn around.

I've rambled a bit, and none of this has had anything to do with my verse of the day, Acts 4:29. In this part of Acts, the believers are encouraged by the boldness of Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, and they pray that they, too, will have boldness to proclaim the gospel, even in the face of opposition and possible persecution.

I pray that I will have the boldness needed to disciple my own child, even though she's not interested and won't be around so much this summer. I pray that the lessons I've taught her so far--either by instruction or example or one of my boring short lectures--will stick, and that she'll continue to develop enough character that she can be bold in middle school, standing up for what's right and not bowing to negative peer pressure. And I pray that I'll continue to have the courage I need to speak out, whether it's among my own peers, online, or in my community.

Today's picture is of a sunrise from above the clouds. God knows what is to come for me and my little family, and I'm trusting that He will be there throughout the year to come and beyond, guiding us, testing us, strengthening us as we move into this next season of our lives.