Choosing Love, Not Fear

Life is a matter of choice. Every single moment we live presents us with an opportunity to choose.

For a large part of my life, I didn’t see life as a choice. Instead, I saw life as something that was happening to me. I felt like a victim, and I had evidence to support it! My father died when I was three. My mother left me and my sisters when I was fifteen. My first husband died in my arms when I was twenty-seven. To me, it seemed that everyone I loved left me – either by death or by choice.

One day, someone asked me what my biggest fear was, and I responded that what most terrified me was the thought of losing either my kids or my husband because I could not imagine having to experience that type of pain again. Her response?

“You’ll survive it. How do I know? Because you already have. Now, you can either choose to live your life fearing that the people you love are going to die, or you can live your life loving them.”

In that moment, I saw myself as stronger than I’d known myself to be. I had survived my greatest fear, experienced the greatest loss and pain of my life and it didn’t kill me. It didn’t stop me from falling in love again! I really got the power of choice and began choosing to live my life in love!

Life isn’t always easy, and sometimes heartache is part of the journey. The fear of experiencing that type of pain again can be paralyzing and can have the fear choosing for us, instead of us choosing for ourselves.

You can either choose to live in fear of not succeeding, or doing whatever it takes to succeed. You can either choose live in fear of dying, or choose to live your life for as long as it’s yours. And you can choose to live in fear of experiencing a broken heart, or open your heart to the possibility of loving again. The empowering news is that you always get to choose!

So, when the fears come up (and they will), remember: You are stronger than you know yourself to be. You’ve already experienced the disappointment, the pain, and the heartache once and it didn’t kill you, you survived it. Life isn’t something that just happens to you and you can either let your fears stop you, or you can choose to say and create how the rest of the story goes.

Be bold. Be courageous. Be powerful. And choose to live the life your heart desires!