"Brave"

(by Nichole Nordeman) Nichole Nordeman - Brave - Brave



"The gate is wide
The road is paved in moderation
The crowd is kind and quick to pull you in
Welcome to the middle ground
It's safe and sound and
Until now it's where I've been
'Cause it's been fear that ties me down to everything
But it's been love, Your love, that cuts the strings

Chorus:
So long status quo
I think I just let go
You make me want to be brave
The way it always was
Is no longer good enough
You make me want to be brave
Brave, brave

I am small
And I speak when I'm spoken to
But I am willing to risk it all
I say Your name
Just Your name and I'm ready to jump
Even ready to fall...
Why did I take this vow of compromise?
Why did I try to keep it all inside?

Chorus

I've never known a fire that didn't begin with a flame
Every storm will start with just a drop of rain
But if you believe in me
That changes everything
So long, I'm gone

Chorus”

We finished out the 2005 school year living with my dad & baby brother (I know, he's 20 now & twice my size, but he will always be my baby brother). I hadn't lived with Dad in 20 years, so I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him & really feel like God restored “the years the locusts had eaten” (Joel 2:25). I think we could have stayed there forever, with me making dinner for Dad & my family every night and walking with him after dinner on the evenings that Chris was home. But the situation was never intended to be permanent (nor was it ideal, for reasons that aren't really important right now). So, just before school started in the fall, we moved to Sugar Land. We found a house to rent with enough space for Christopher to have an office & an area for me to scrapbook! Sadly, Mama Dee, Christopher's 97-year-old great grandmother passed away the same weekend that we moved. We made a crazy 24-hour trip to the other side of Dallas, where Chris performed the funeral. Then we turned right around & made it to Elizabeth's new school in time to meet the teacher the night before school started.

That was the year I turned the big 3-0! I was OK with it until about June, when I realized that it really didn't matter how young I looked, I WAS turning 30. I got 4 birthday desserts out of the deal, though, so I really shouldn't complain! Dad took us out that Friday, my family took me out on Saturday & after church on my actual birthday, and the members of the home church we were attending threw me a surprise party complete with homemade chocolate cake! Plus, my mister scheduled an appointment for me to get LASIK, which I must say was the best present ever! After our move to Sugar Land, I started working part-time for an insurance adjuster who was in Louisiana looking at over 200 homes affected by Hurricane Katrina. I answered the phones & helped the husband & wife team keep their home office organized. It was a very flexible schedule, & I only worked while Elizabeth was at school, but it was SO hard to leave Cody. He got to stay home with his Dad, though, so it really wasn't so bad!


Elly got a hamster named Princess Ella for her 7th birthday! And she finally lost her first tooth! We didn’t think she would ever lose one. Cody worked real hard on becoming a Super Hero! He was constantly running around the house & lifting weights. My good friend Amy took this great picture of the kids in the Spring:


The web design company picked up some as Chris started working with Freddy. The income was not entirely steady, but we really learned a lot about trusting God to meet our needs. He was so faithful to us. We saw Him provide for us in ways that we had never imagined. Each time there was a need, & it looked like we didn’t have the money for it, we would get an unexpected check in the mail, cash from a friend, or a new work project for Chris. Letters of Warning, the band that Chris was in, released their CD, “Dreams of Darkening Spain” & played a couple of times a month.

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