A Bad Case of Fear Stripes

David Shannon, the acclaimed children’s book author, wrote A Bad Case of Stripes — a story about a little girl named Camilla who hid her love for lima beans out of fear of being made fun of by her classmates. Because she suppressed what she loved, her fear of rejection began to show up in wild ways. Camilla started taking on everyone else’s thoughts, ideas, and expectations. First, she broke out in colorful stripes, then red, white, and blue ones, then checkers, and eventually she became a mixture of everything everyone else projected onto her.

It wasn’t until a kind, older woman reminded Camilla to be true to herself — to eat her lima beans and be proud of who she was — that her stripes, stars, and all the chaos finally disappeared.

Camilla reminds me a lot of… me. I’m proud of who I am and the things that make me me, yet sometimes I still worry about whether others will accept them. And when I start to focus too much on that, I find myself taking on the opinions, remarks, and expectations of everyone else. It doesn’t ease my fear; it actually strengthens it.

Before long, the fear settles in. I start to question, to worry, to doubt — until I find myself giving up. I allow fear to take over my mind, and suddenly, my dreams, my purpose, and my calling are all tangled up in fear stripes. And in those moments, I can’t always tell where my faith begins and my fear ends.

Fear has a way of painting over our faith until we can’t tell the difference between the two. But God reminds us in 2 Timothy 1:7 that He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. So today, I’m choosing to eat my “lima beans” — to own what makes me unique, to honor what I love, and to trust that it’s enough. Maybe that’s your challenge too: to let go of the fear, lean into faith, and remember that the world needs the real you, not the version fear tries to paint.