His Encouragement #118 — Battling a Child’s Fear

Welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He and He alone is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

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Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:

Psalm 27:1 (God’s Word Translation)

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Who is there to fear? The Lord is my life’s fortress. Who is there to be afraid of?

This week, we have been battling fear in my household.

My seven-year-old daughter is terrified of the Coronavirus. My husband and I didn’t realize that things had gotten out of hand until a few days ago when a Bloomberg commercial aired on our TV. I wasn’t paying any attention to the commercial, but I did hear Bloomberg’s voice say something in regards to the virus. He apparently was espousing “statistics.” Well, these statistics scared my child. She came running over to me and started to cry. She doesn’t want the virus to come and kill us. We had a talk about it, and we discussed the importance of going to Jesus with our fears. I thought things were OK, but they were not.

Two mornings ago, my daughter woke up crying because she had a nightmare. It was pretty gruesome. My husband and I figured out that it was residual fear about the virus. I knew I had to change my tactics with my daughter, so I looked for Bible verses that deal with fear. I wanted something that a child could really comprehend. Psalm 27:1 jumped out at me. I grabbed my daughter’s Bible, and we did a quick little Bible study on the verse. We went line by line and discussed what it meant.

The best moment came when we discussed what it meant that God is our life’s fortress. We talked about what a fortress is (she really LOVED the idea that Jesus is like a wall guarding our very lives). We talked about the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We talked about Heaven and Jesus. We talked about what it would mean to die from a virus. And, then we talked about prayer. It was a great conversation.

I’m hopeful that the fear inside my child has lessened a little. I’m not foolish to believe it is 100% gone after one Bible study. She will hear more news reports, her teachers and fellow classmates will talk about it, and she may hear about a classmate or friend who gets it. BUT, by showing her what God has to say about fear, by showing her another aspect to God’s personality, Bella now understands a little better that God is real and He really wants her to go to Him when she is struggling.

If you are struggling today with fear, or if your child is a little like Bella and is experiencing his or her own fear, know that God was, is, and always will be our fortress. He takes guarding our lives very seriously. Go to Him in prayer. He is waiting for you right now!

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Note to parents: If you are experiencing fear issues with your child, I found an amazing post by Tara Ziegmont that shares info on how to approach fearful children, Bible verses, and children’s books by reputable Christian authors that deal with this topic of fear. She also includes a fabulous prayer you can pray over your child.

You can read that post by clicking HERE.

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NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?

Check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

Becca @ The Becca Files

Gina @ Stories by Gina

Rebecca @ Rev. Rebecca Writes

Andi @ Radiant Light

Leslie @ Words of Hope