Find Your BraveShembull

“God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” —Psalm 46:5

There are times when we all want to quit. Wanting to quit in the midst of the storm is understandable. You just want to make the challenge or the pain go away. I get it. Sometimes as the waves crash against us, we get tired. And weariness causes us to want to give up. Quit moving forward. Quit living into our purpose. There have been many times, as wave after wave hit my life, that I asked, “Is this (fulfilling my purpose, staying on course) worth it?” Because in the middle of the waves, it is hard to believe that God can bring anything good out of it, and does it really matter if I quit?

It matters.

This is the moment to find your brave. To keep going. One definition of quitting is to simply give up—to admit defeat. Now, I may look defeated, I may feel defeated, but I am not going to admit defeat. Wanting to quit isn’t bad. It is the actual quitting that will keep us from the shore we were destined to reach. Can we keep going? Can we finish what we have started? If you leave a marriage in the middle of a storm, your children and grandchildren will be affected. What will be the consequences if you leave your job? You might feel free, but what about others? Did you just give them more to do? Timing is everything.

How about your church? Every church goes through storms. Don’t bail out during one. It might affect younger believers who need to see faithfulness. Are you in the middle of a project that God has trusted you with? Has it gotten hard and you just want to quit? Who would be affected if you did? Let’s be those women who stay the course in the midst of a storm and not opt to bail out.

One of the dictionary definitions of quitting is “to abandon necessary action.” If I am going to get through rough waters, there are some actions I must not abandon. Athletes keep training through the pain. They won’t have a chance at a medal otherwise. So too we need to keep fighting our way to shore.

Fortunately, we have great role models to show us how to persevere through rough storms. Where would we be if some of the amazing people in history quit their journeys simply because the challenges were too much?

ACTION: Just. Don’t. Quit.