I am rather proud of myself. Recently, I dealt with one of my biggest fears. Wait a minute, make that two of them.
It started with the renovating of our back deck. As you may know, we have been working on it for quite some time. If we want to get technical about it, Tim and I actually rebuilt the uncovered section. After we replaced the floor joists and the skirt boards, it was time to lay down the new floor. At first this made me a little antsy since the deck is about 10 feet high. As you probably know, I have a fear of falling. Then I realized that I would not be able to help Tim the way I need to if I gave in to it. So, I decided I was going to have to suck it up and just deal it.
When Tim was hammering in the boards, I stood on the edges to keep them in place. Usually there was no floor next to me or in front of me. There were even times I stood with one foot on the board and the other on the edge of the deck. The more I did it, the more comfortable I felt. By the way, I did look down a few times and it didn’t really bother me. After that, I literally stood on the edge of the deck and held the posts for the handrail steady as Tim nailed them into place.
Next phase was painting. Tim did the outside while I painted the inside. I sat my painting ladder up where the deck is connected to the house. My heart sank when I saw all the spider webs hanging in the corner. Usually, I have Tim take them down, but I decided to do it myself. So, I took an old towel and flung it at the webs so they wouldn’t get on my hands. You see, anytime I get a spider’s web on me, my first response is to dance around while yelling: “Get it off!” or “Do you see anything?” Anyway, I watched a spider scurry into a crack in the wood. Unfortunately for me, it was also where I would be painting.
I picked up the paint brush, but then I hesitated. I decided that if it started to crawl out, I would sling the brush and jump off of the ladder. Praying and holding my breath, I preceded to paint in the corner. Now, the paint was a light gray. As I’m painting, I see what I think is a speck of wood on the house that had a dab of the light gray on it. I almost reached up to knock it off, but then I thought: “What if that’s another spider.” I slung the towel next to the speck and it moved. Yep, I just painted an icky spider. Chills ran down my back.
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strength thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)
As you read, my initial response to working on the deck floor was fear. But the very first words of the verse are: “Fear thou not.” Obviously, the Lord wants our trust in Him to be greater than our fear. Remember, the more you flex your “trust muscles,” the stronger they become.
As soon as the spider moved, I was in battle mode. I knocked it off of the house with a piece of wood. I watched it fall, but I didn’t see it any more. To this day we haven’t seen the painted spider. Maybe he’s showing his paint off to his spider friends.

Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.