Fear
We have a young girl who lives next door to us. Last night I was eating dinner when I heard a
knock on the front door. I looked outside and saw that it was my neighbor.
I opened the door and she was selling cookie dough to raise money for
her prom. I placed my order for cookie
dough and then we started talking.
She is a junior in high school and as we talked she made a
statement that caught my attention. We
were discussing if she was going to go to college and she said yes, she wanted
to become a doctor. She said “I am so
scared about college”.
That statement caught my attention. She is afraid. I understand being afraid of the unknown
because I’ve been there and done that.
Still do sometimes. What struck
me about this conversation was that we adults have a tendency to instill fear
in children. I think it is because we
have lived with fear in our own life so we want to make sure that children are
prepared for this cruel world we live in.
Have you ever asked your child what they are afraid of? What would their answer be? Younger ones are probably more apt to say
they are afraid of the dark or afraid of getting lost. If you are a teenager what might you be
afraid of? How about afraid of not being
accepted by others, or being made fun of in front of others, or as Melissa my
16 year old next door neighbor told me, she is afraid of not getting into
college or failing. I told her that she
should never give up. I also said that
every one of us fails at one time or another in life. The important thing is to learn something
from the failure and then get back up and go again.
Sometimes I think we forget to teach kids how to have faith; faith
in a Father who will never leave us or forsake us. Faith that He has a plan for
each of us and He is there. Faith to
depend on our Creator to get us through whatever trial we face. The reality is we live in a world where bad
things happen and if our faith isn’t strong enough, fear will overtake us.
Jesus didn’t have fear. He
was placed here on earth to be about His Father’s business and one of the most
fearful things to happen to Him was for Him to die on a cross. He trusted and had faith that God knew what
He was doing. Fear was not the answer,
faith was. Teach your children to have
faith and not fear. The Bible tells us
that the only one we should fear is the Lord.
If we don’t practice faith every day, we will give in to the fears of
the world.
Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there
are times when fear overtakes me and I react instinctively out of fear. Help me to strengthen my faith so that when
circumstances happen that would normally cause me to be fearful; instead I will
turn to You in faith knowing that You know what is best for me and will see me
through. I want to practice the faith of
Jesus. He knew what His life was about
and it was all about living for You and saving a sinner like me.
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