Fear

Sitting here at 3 o'clock in the morning, rocking my son back to sleep because he was 'afraid of his room' made me stop and think, what is fear, what causes fear and how can you not be afraid?

Mr. Webster (you will find I tend to speak to him regularly) defines fear as:
1. To have reverential awe of (fear God)
2. To be afraid of; to expect with alarm
3. An unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation and awareness of danger.
4. Anxious concern

I think we all have fears to an extent. I fear spiders, falling, losing my family, sometimes the dark and doing new things. This is where courage comes in. Courage is the ability to face the unknown. I do this every day, and so do you. When you wake up in the morning, do you know what that day will bring? No? You're facing the unknown every morning when you wake up. Now, how to turn that into terms a 4 year old would understand is still a mystery to me.

Deuteronomy 20:3
And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them

and

Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Is this Gods way of saying "have courage to face tomorrow?" Every day you wake up, you are going to battle. You battle the traffic, your job, your responsibilities, your kids, your day is a battle, fear it not.

How do you not fear certain things? The Bible tells you to trust in the Lord and he will protect you. Your brain tells you that it's irrational to fear certain things. But how do you tell a 4 year old that he shouldn't be afraid of the dark? You don't. There are 'normal' fears, and for a child of that age, the dark is one. I, myself, have a small fear of the dark, I don't like to be in the dark anywhere alone, so I can imagine how he feels when he wakes up in his room in the morning, dark, scared and alone. He wants his mommy, much in the same way I want his daddy under the same circumstances. So I give him comfort, play a little game with the flashlight to 'search the room for monsters' but most of the time, we end up right here, me rocking him back to sleep because he just wants to be with his mommy.