50 states of brave introduces: ms. illinois!

*Just a reminder to go enter my giveaway here!*

Katie of Beautifully Pure!

If you're just joining us, 50 States of Brave is a blogging project that celebrates the little opportunities we have to be brave everyday and the women who make these habits a way of life. As part of the project, everyone blogger is sending in a story of the bravest thing they've ever done for all of us to get to read, which makes us pretty excited. 

The whole project is sponsored by Favoring Brave, my Etsy store. Each lady gets to pick an item from the store to model in her post and keep as a souvenir of her bravery!

Wanna see all of the brave ladies already featured? Visit our lovely archives or Pinterest page of bloggers and their Favoring Brave picks!

Wanna join in the fun and represent your state? There's more info about that at the bottom of this post.

Alright here's the good stuff:

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When Jill emailed me about the 50 States of Brave project I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Bravery is something that’s really, really important to me and something that I really strive for in my life. But when she asked me to write about the bravest thing I’ve ever done, I have to admit that at first I was a loss as to what to pick. 

I don’t know what the bravest thing I’ve ever done is - or maybe I do and I just don’t want to talk about about it. For me bravery isn’t so much an action as a decision to not let cowardice be an option. I don’t give into fear.

I realized a long time ago that we are all faced with a decision every single day of our lives: how are we going to react to life? We can be “glass-half-empty” people, or “glass-half-full.” We can let fear paralyze us, or we can fight back. I, personally, like to be a “glass-half-full” kins of gal, who kicks fear in the butt like the Black Widow.

Simply put, the bravest thing I ever did was decide to take control of my own life and stop playing victim. It hasn’t always been easy, and it’s often led me to do very frightening things, but stories aren’t written about people who stayed quietly at home and never did anything exciting or scary.

“The road is a dangerous place,” Bilbo Baggins once said. “You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.”

I want to be swept off to wonderful places. I want wonderful things to happen to me - and I have been to wonderful places, and wonderful things have happened, but that all started with me letting go of my fear and learning to trust that things can change. That with God anything can happen.

Sometimes bravery isn’t something you do, but something you believe.


Be sure the check out Katie's blog, Beautifully Pure, for more awesomeness.

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Think you have what it takes to represent your state? Awesome! Here's what you have to do to apply:
1. Follow Favor the Brave through GFC or Bloglovin.
2. Send me an email at favoringbrave@gmail.com with your name, you blog address, what state you're from, and why you should get to represent your state as it's resident brave lady!
Some states are filled already, but there are lots of openings left!
peace&love,
Jill