What will you stand up for?

Some things are worth standing up for. We move forward when we make choices based on the truth and important values.

I’ll never forget my intense fear and anxiety when I was forced to move to a new school. My dad was an upwardly mobile corporate man. He started as a salesman after WW2 and made his way to the top of a large, multinational company. B.A. Goulet was quite a man, but his ambition and career caused our family to move—a lot. Each move required the big school transition. The 6th-grade move was the hardest for me because I started going to a school dominated by a bully. If you’ve ever been bullied, I’m so sorry. I know exactly how you feel. As a new kid in school, I got beat up a lot. Have you ever been bullied?

My 6th-grade year seemed the worst because no one stood up to the bully and he consistently targeted the weakest kids in the schoolyard. Then one day, I decided to stand up to him. To my surprise, I pinned him to the ground and held him until he cried “uncle.” I changed that day. Our school changed that day, and the bully became my closest friend. Have you ever stood up to the bullies of your life? Have you ever conquered the fears that intimidate you?

Habakkuk encourages us to stand, watch, and write down the vision of God for our lives: “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the LORD answered me and said: ‘Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.’” (Habakkuk 2:1-2, NKJV)

Are you fighting for important values? Could this be the decade you stand up and move forward with the help of God? As that country-western song says, “If you don’t stand up for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

I do believe you are ready to stand for God, your family, and your future because you are a miracle.

Your friend, Paul Marc Goulet