You’re Stronger Than You Think

Last week, my husband and I were sitting on our front porch when we noticed some visitors coming through the field.

Two mama deer were making their way across the pasture with three little fawns following behind them. The babies were getting bigger, but they still had some of their spots, which made them especially sweet to watch.

Eventually, they reached the fence. For the two mamas, it was no big deal. They hopped right over and continued on, but the babies stopped.

They began running up and down the fence line, looking for a way through. You could almost see their anxiety building as they realized their mamas were on one side and they were stuck on the other.

Before long, the mothers noticed what was happening. They hopped back over the fence and went to their babies, sniffing them over as if to reassure them that everything was okay. Then the mamas jumped over the fence again.

Watching from the porch, I wondered if they were trying to show them, See? You can do this. Just follow me. But the babies weren’t convinced. They kept running back and forth along the fence, getting more worked up as they searched for another way across.

Finally, one little fawn found a narrow opening in the gate and squeezed through. It was such a tight fit that the gate rattled loudly as it passed, which scared the other two even more! Those poor little things took off again.

But a few minutes later, as I watched through the trees, I saw that the other two had finally made it over the fence, too. All three babies were reunited with their mamas.

I thought about those little deer again the next morning during my quiet time. My Scripture lesson that day reminded me that God’s Spirit lives within us and equips and empowers us to do far more than we could ever accomplish on our own. Because of that, we don’t have to be intimidated when we face difficult circumstances.

And immediately, I pictured those fawns standing at that fence. How often do we do the same thing? We come to an obstacle and think, I can’t do this. We run one direction and then another, desperately looking for an easier way around it. We watch other people clear their fences and wonder why something that seems so easy for them feels so overwhelming to us.

Sometimes we even know where God is leading us. We can see where we’re supposed to go. But there’s still a fence in the way.

The beautiful thing is that God doesn’t stand on the other side impatiently wondering why we haven’t figured it out yet. Just like those mama deer came back for their babies, He meets us right where we are.

He reassures us. He reminds us that we aren’t alone. And sometimes He allows us to wrestle with an obstacle long enough to discover something we didn’t know before. We really can get over it.

Not because we’re suddenly fearless. Not because the fence disappeared. And certainly not because we’re capable of handling everything life throws at us on our own. But because the Spirit of the living God is within us.

Second Corinthians 3:3 says, “You show that you are a letter from Christ…written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

And a few verses later we’re reminded, “Not that we are competent in ourselves…but our competence comes from God.” — 2 Corinthians 3:5

Maybe you’re standing in front of a fence right now. Something feels too high, too difficult, or too frightening. You may even be running back and forth looking for another way because you’re convinced you don’t have what it takes.

On your own, maybe you don’t. But you have far more power available to you than you think. The same God who knows what’s waiting on the other side of that fence is with you on this side of it, and when it’s time to cross, He will give you what you need to make it over.

October 9, 2026 Morning Brew