7 - Fears

Day 7: The Things You're Most Afraid Of.

1) BUGS.. basically every small thing that crawls or flies -- (with the exception of butterflies, ladybugs, and roly-polies, which I find precious and endearing). Wasps, bees, horseflies, crickets, roaches, junebugs, spiders... all legitimate reasons to have an epic freakout in my book! It's a very real fear for me -- my friends and family know this to be true -- my eyes are well-trained to spot them, and I can't sleep or relax till I know they're dead. People always say, "They're more afraid of you than you are of them," but I'm pretty sure that's not true in my case: I've checked into a hotel room to avoid sleeping in my parents house when we couldn't find a mouse, missed a college class because there was a cricket between me and my dorm room door, darted into my house without closing the garage or turning off the alarm to avoid being attacked by a junebug, screamed a cuss word while jumping into a pool after drying off to avoid a horsefly sting, and paid a friend over $100 to kill a wasp for me while I left my house for the weekend! lol All clearly ridiculous behavior, yet all things I'd likely do again if the need arose. #irrationalfear

2) Burns... aka my fear of hot things. lol  Probably another irrational one. Curling irons freak me right out - burning hot metal with nothing protective around it - how about no, thank you very much.  I can barely stay calm when the hairstylist starts in with one (this fear is slightly more legit, based on two real stories I know about).  I've finally mastered my fear of the oven, but for a while, I wasn't willing to take anything out for fear of burning myself. #yayovenmitts Potholders don't provide nearly enough protection. lol  And don't even get me started on hot glue guns - I had a bad experience in 5th grade, and I've refused to do any craft that requires one since!

3) Snakes... so very creepy... the slithering, hissing sound, darting forked tongue, shedding skin... not to mention the fangs!! There is a reason Satan chose to come in the form of a serpent in the Garden of Eden... and to my knowledge, they're the only animal God directly cursed... just sayin'.

4) Evil people... this category covers a wide variety of crimes and injustices that could be committed against me or the people I love.  To me, anyone who purposely hurts or endangers another person with callous indifference to the other's pain = evil. (It's not something I actively fear or worry over, but something I'm very alert to with my job and our culture as it stands, and obviously, something I pray for God's protection and deliverance from.)

5) Hopelessness... a sense of darkness/despair that overshadows my sense of hope and will to live. God never lets this last too long, but the feeling does genuinely scare me when it hits, usually preceded by a loss of love or community that I've come to count on.

So that's my list for today.  I had to laugh because I'm actually disconcertingly unafraid of death... beam me up, Jesus!  But like any person, I fear the physical pain often associated with it and the emotional pain associated with the death of loved ones.  In the end, this list feels legit to me because I'm guessing all the things I'm afraid of won't be present in heaven (or obviously won't still be scary to me), but they'll probably have a major presence in hell... true story!  #nobugsinheaven ;)