Random Two

The Random Dozen has shrunk this week, and this will likely be the last of its weekly appearances. My bloggy friend Lidna at 2nd Cup of Coffee has faithfully hosted this for months, but it's just too much for her to juggle on a weekly basis with the other things going on in her life. Hopefully it will be around on a monthly basis or, at least, occasionally!

I totally understand, but I'll miss it. Especially since now I'll have to come up with Wednesday posts on my own!

Here are this week's duo:

1. What scares you the most

A) Physically
B) Emotionally

Why does it scare you, and how do you cope?

It's interesting to me that Lid differentiated between physical and emotional fears. Since fear is an emotion, I wouldn't have thought about physical fears. I guess they would be fears about tangible things.

Physically - My biggest fear is the potential for crime, thanks to the two burglaries my family experienced when I was about seven or eight years old. And then the summer before ninth grade, my best friend who lived around the corner from me was raped when she was home alone. I have come a loooong way in regards to this fear. It isn't something that plagues me on a regular basis. The way I cope is through prayer and through taking appropriate safety measures: keeping my house and car locked, not walking alone, parking in well-lit areas, having my key out and ready when I walk out of a store, etc.

Emotionally - Like many moms, this would probably be the idea of something happening to my children, either death or a serious illness. I have improved in this area as well. I had a harder time with this when I was pregnant and the kids were younger. One of our nieces had a rare genetic disorder and had a liver transplant when she was seven months old. A nephew was born with an incompletely developed arm. We had a bit of a Down's scare when I was pregnant with my girl. And when my boy was six months old he was in the hospital for viral meningitis. Once I finished being pregnant and my kids got past the age that SIDS is a possibility, I relaxed a lot. But like the physical fear, I have found that prayer and "taking every thought captive" (2 Corinthians 10:5) is effective in combatting any fear.

2. What comes to mind when you read the phrase, "Nothing gold can stay?"

I was not familiar with this phrase until Lid included this verse from Robert Frost:

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

I thought it was a rather discouraging thought, but I guess it just reinforces what the Bible tells us about temporal things:

For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. (James 1:11)

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will never pass away. (Matthew 24:35)

For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever." (1 Peter 1:24-25)

So that's my randomizing for today. Thanks, Lid, for coming up with such a great meme!