#Inspiration #CreateYourNow #DailyMotivation

Most of us grew up hearing the tale of Little Red Riding Hood as a warning — be careful, stay on the path, don’t talk to strangers.

But there’s something deeper in that story when you hold it up to the light. There was a moment when Little Red Riding Hood stood in that room and could have accepted the disguise. She could have ignored the feeling in her gut. She could have smiled and gone along with what she was being told. But instead, she looked closer. What big eyes you have. What big ears you have. What big teeth you have. Question by question, she pulled back the cover on something that had been pretending to be safe.

That’s what it looks like to examine your thought life.

Some of the thoughts you’ve been living with have been dressed up in familiar voices — comfortable, well-worn, almost believable. They sound like home. They sound like truth.

But when you lean in and really look, something doesn’t add up. The thought that says you’ll never be enough? It’s wearing a disguise. The belief that tells you it’s too late to change? Its teeth are too sharp to be anything that loves you. The voice that whispers you should just keep quiet and stop hoping for more? That voice is not your grandmother, my friend. That voice is the wolf.

And here’s the part of the story no one talks about enough — it takes extraordinary courage to question what’s familiar.

Little Red Riding Hood didn’t run at first. She looked. She asked. She let herself see what was really in front of her. That is not small.

Mary Anne Radmacher put it this way: “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.‘”

The bravest thing you may do this week isn’t to make a grand declaration. It may be pulling back the covers on a thought you’ve accepted your whole life and finally asking, But is this true?

Bravery doesn’t begin with the breakthrough. It begins with honesty. It begins the moment you admit, I’ve been carrying something that doesn’t belong to me. Maybe it’s a thought about your worth that someone else planted. Maybe it’s a belief about what you deserve that was handed to you so long ago you forgot it wasn’t yours.

Whatever it is, the moment you dare to look at it — really look, the way that girl in the red hood looked — is the moment it starts to lose its power.

The K.I.S.S. ~ Dare to look!

And unlike Little Red Riding Hood, you don’t face the wolf alone.

Joshua 1:9 says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Wherever you go — that includes the deep woods of your own thought life. That includes the room where something has been pretending to comfort you while it slowly devours your peace. God doesn’t send you in unprotected. He commands courage and then stands right beside you while you pull back every disguise. He’s not waiting on the other side of the hard thing. He’s with you in the middle of it.

So if you woke up today wondering whether you have what it takes to do this — to really begin the work of examining your mind and making it new — I need you to hear me clearly. You’ve already started. You started the moment you chose to pay attention. You started the moment you stopped accepting every thought at face value and said, What big lies you have. That is not weakness. That is one of the strongest things a woman can do.

This journey isn’t about tearing yourself apart. It’s about opening yourself up — gently, bravely, honestly — and inviting God into the spaces you’ve been managing on your own. The wolf only has power in the dark. The wolf only wins when no one looks.

But you’re looking. And the God who walks with you wherever you go has already written how this story ends — not with the wolf, but with the girl who dared to see the truth.

So rise, my sweet friend. Rise with the truth that you are held, you are not alone, and the courage you need has already been given to you.

One honest look at a time, one surrendered thought at a time, one quiet “I will try again tomorrow” at a time — you are becoming the woman God already sees when He looks at you.

“Be present. Be incredible. Be YOU!!!“