Faith

the head and I’m holding my brains in ” Upon closer examination, the man discovered she wasn’t holding her brains It was biscuit dough A canister of biscuit dough in the grocery sack behind her had exploded from the heat, making a loud explosion, and the biscuit dough had covered the back of her head

Allow me to give you two suggestions from the Bible

I am currently preaching through Psalm 23 at my church Many of us know this wonderful Psalm by heart Psalm 23 verse 4 says, “Yeah thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me ” The word “evil” in the Bible was often used to speak of adversity or calamity and not just something bad or sinful In other words, David was saying that he did not fear any danger, any hardship, any tragedy including death itself, since the Lord was with him And neither do we!

As true as that may be, many of us live in fear The sad part is, many of the things we are afraid of aren’t even real! Motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, said FEAR stands for False Evidence Appearing Real This actually happened to a lady in Arkansas who was sitting in her car in a grocery store parking lot when she heard a loud “Bang!” Then she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head She was holding both her hands on the back of her head when a man walked by and asked, “Ma’am are you okay?” The woman answered with a shaky voice, “Call 911, I’ve been shot in the back of

Even though our minds can play tricks on us, fear is a real problem for thousands of people What exactly is fear? If you Google the word fear, you find this definition: an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger

There are wo words in the New Testament for fear One means “respect, or reverence” which is used when we read in the Bible, “the fear of the Lord ” The other word is the Greek word, phobeo, which means a strangling, debilitating fear The word phobeo is where we get our English word phobia There are over 500 fears registered with the American Medical Association as being legitimate phobias They include such unusual fears as: Cyberphobia: fear of computers; Lunaphobia: fear of the moon; Astraphobia: fear of lightning; Erytophobia: fear of the color red; Triskaidekaphobia: fear of the number “13;” Peladophobia: fear of baldness One of the funniest phobias is Phobophobia: fear of fear But the most common fear among Americans is Glossophobia, which is the fear of public speaking

Going back to God’s Word, we find hundreds of times where God tells us, “fear not or be not afraid ” We do not have to live in fear! So how do we overcome our fears?

First of all, ask God for strength In the New Testament book of James, we find in chapter 4 that “ we have not because we do not ask ” Here is the great thing about asking God for strength When you ask God for strength, you are asking God for His strength! That’s why the Apostle Paul could say, “I can do all things ” Why? Because “Christ strengthens me ” So when you are afraid, first, ask God to give you strength

Two, give God your fears In Psalm 55 verse 22, the Bible tells us to “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you ” Almost the same words are found in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 7, “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you ” The word casting means throwing something on something else or someone else So go away, throw your fears to the Lord

David us in Psalm 23 that we have nothing to fear, because the Lord comforts us. So in times of fear, remember to ask God for strength and then give God those fears

Howe Elementary Teacher of the Month

Howe has been home to the Hunt family for the past 11 years A brief stint in East Texas last year made us realize how much we valued and missed our adopted home town and the warm and caring residents of Howe I was very fortunate to be re-hired by Howe Elementary School as a Dyslexia teacher after having taught Special Education there for the previous eight years My husband and I, and the five dogs are glad to be back in the Small Town with the BIG Heart!! -

Niki Hunt

Niki Hunt