Strength for the Climb: Brave Enough To Begin

Today we continue our series—Strength for the Climb. This series is based on scriptures our children will explore at this year’s Vacation Bible School. Each day of VBS, the kids will look at a story from scripture that amplifies the theme verse for the week: Philippians 4:13: "For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength." Now, many of us learned that verse as a kind of spiritual superpower—as if “I can do everything!” “Nothing is hard with Jesus!” But it’s important to remember that Paul wrote those words while sitting in prison—so he knew hardship. When Paul wrote these words, what he intended was for the people of Philippi, and us, to be assured that God will give us the strength to persevere through anything. And because God is God, God can use those hardships and challenges to help us become more of who God created us to be. Last week we saw this in the story of Joseph interpreting dreams for Pharaoh, and today we see it in the story of Esther.