When I first began to brainstorm what bold, strong, & free means to me. I could not isolate the three words on their own. They overlapped with one another. Each word is defined in the other word. Furthermore, I thought of a woman from my past, whose life is an inspiration of what it means to live bold, strong, and free for Christ. That is the beauty when someone dies, you know how they lived their life up until the end. There is no second-guessing, you just know.

Allow me to paint a picture of my grandmother.

 

 

Bold

When we think of someone bold, we think of someone who takes risks, is daring, and is courageous. I do not know if my grandmother would have considered herself to be bold in that definition. She was quiet and a listener.

But boldness is a willingness to take risks. That was Grandmother. She was highly intelligent and although quiet, she was not afraid to do what was needed. When asked why she fostered kids, she looked straight at me and said, “God told me.” It was an absolute. There was no need to hesitate or beat around the bush, she heard God say something and she responded accordingly.

My grandmother had this boldness. She had the Gospel living inside her and had this urge to share it, even if it means fostering in a time and place where she knew no one else who was doing it. But living out the Gospel needed another ingredient.

 

 

Strong

It needed passion and an ardent spirit for the belief. It needed strength.

Boldness is what gives us the power to speak up. Strength is what backs it up.

Boldness is often seen as active and pushes its way to the front. Strength can be seen in the reserves, keeping it close by in case you need it later. Grandmother had this quiet strength about her. She knew when to stay quiet, to just listen instead. She remembered what people told her.

Strength also has a spirit of humility. Knowing when to swallow pride and apologize, knowing when to forgive and forget.

 

 

Free

So where does free comes into this?

I think it takes boldness and strength to live in freedom.

As women, we are constantly being told what we should do and what we are supposed to be doing. It starts from a young age. In grade school, it was being mindful of how you dress and do not think about wearing spaghetti straps, because it would cause our boys to stumble. As we grow older, entering the threshold of adulthood, we see our girlfriends get engaged and have babies. Maybe you have family members, who ask you at Thanksgiving or Christmas if you are dating someone.

Speaking of dating – When your relationship status changes, your “supposed to” changes as well. People flock to you and although their intentions are well-meaning, their words have a sense of pressure on them. They ask about engagement and make guesses on when it would happen. When the woman gets engaged, babies are the next “supposed to.”

Freedom is being able to rip up those metaphorical papers of “should be” and “supposed to.” It is saying no to those societal rules and creating a life that would bring you boldness and strength to be free.

To finish up the painting of Grandmother, here is how she displayed freedom:

Grandmother grew up in a time when women could really only be a teacher, a nurse, or a secretary if they were to have a career. Then after marriage, they stopped working and became a mother and a housewife. I think at one time, she wanted to be a pharmacist but became a teacher, then married my grandfather, and quit her job to become a mother.

While she raised her children, she could have said, “Well, this is it. I am meant to be a wife and a mama. Nothing else.”

But she made something out of her expectations. She chose to create something beautiful and uniquely her own.

She dreamed of fostering children. She dreamed of traveling. She dreamed of learning. Dreams are great, but we need boldness to learn to turn your dream into reality. She had the strength to take on those dreams, strength given to her by her God. That daringness and strength assisted in giving Grandmother the freedom to choose what she needed to be. It gave her the freedom to say, “I am a wife and mama, but first, I am a Daughter of God. I have the freedom to choose what I am supposed to be as a Daughter of God.”

That’s the beauty of living bold, strong, and free. Just as those words cannot work alone, we cannot work alone. We work best when others surround us and encourage us. My grandmother was never alone, I am not alone, and you are not alone. We can be bold, strong, & free together.

 

 

My Hope for Bold, Strong, & Free

• Let it be a conversation.
  • Engage with us via this blog, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
• Grow and learn with us.

Elizabeth