Courage

Day 1's theme was courage. Queen Esther was my Bible example. (Esther 4-5) Queen Esther's cousin, Mordecai, told her of a law the king signed that would kill all of the Jews on a certain day. He told her that she had to approach the king and save her people. She knew that to approach the king without being summoned meant a death sentence unless the king raised his scepter to hear the supplicant. She had not been summoned to the king in 30 days. She was scared, but Mordecai told her that this could be her purpose for being in the palace. He also told her that God would save the Jews and that she should be on the right side of history...She agreed to approach the king after 3 days of prayers and fasting by all the Jews. Esther then gathered her courage and went before the king (who welcomed her and granted her request for the lives of her people).

We defined courage--doing something that is difficult or dangerous, being brave, standing up for someone, doing something new. We looked at who can help us find our courage--God, Jesus, parents, friends, counselors. We talked about some of the camp activities that we would face during the week that might call for courage--spending the night at camp, being in the woods, rock climbing, canoeing, zipline,  hiking... and we talked about how practice makes it easier. The more often you use your courage, the easier it gets to use your courage again to do what you found difficult or scary before and to try new things.