No Longer a Slave to Fear by Zach Williams

I’ve been listening to praise music a lot over the past few months. Christian music and country music are my faves, and since the sudden passing of my husband, praise music has been a regular part of my day. I’ve been on the road a lot, and the Lord has used music to provide hope, healing, some release of tears, and reminding of His promises.

As adults, maybe we don’t experience “fear” the way we did when we were young. Our fears are very significant though- fear for our children’s futures or for the changing world we confront each day. Hopefully, we’re learning to fight these fears- through prayer and wise counsel.

The fears that our children face may be smaller in scale, but still very real to them; the dark, the unknown, loud noises, crowds, disease or sickness, of being alone or left out, of going into water, the list goes on and on.

I think it’s important for us as parents/grandparents to realize that even though we may not relate to the fears of our children, these feelings are real in their formative minds. And as caregivers, it is our job to address these fears and help alleviate them.

I’m afraid that some of the places that we “go” to for down-time may not always be the healthiest of choices for alleviating fears: social media. We can be selective and self-restricting, and use SM for good purposes. But, there are other tools we can use to provide calm and healing, and we can be selective here too.

We can use music and we can use select books. We can use some calm instrumental music and choose specific books to read with our kids to help them combat their fears; we can book time with our kids. There are options. We can read silly favorites that just make our kids laugh….and then just extend into natural conversation. We can talk and listen, mostly listen, and then offer encouragment. The challenge here is to not judge- just to listen and love. Another option is to intentionally read books that deal with the specific fear or challenge our child is facing. Watching another character deal with or overcome a fear can offer hope and ideas.

When I was little (as if I still don’t deal with this) I had a very real fear of spiders, as my entire family can testify. Arachnophobia is a real thing, people! Did you know there about books about arachnophobia? There are books about monsters under the bed and feeling left out. There are books about almost everything! And we can use them to help our kids become confident problem-solvers. We can use books to build faith over fear too.

As adults, we’ve learned that knowing how to fight fear is life-long skill. We can point our littles to the Father, the one who can help us fight our fears for all of our years. Using Biblical stories/examples and scripture to help our children fight fear may be the very best tool we can give them. Let’s help them choose faith over fear.

Children’s Books about God is Always With Me

Children’s Books About Overcoming Fear

Children’s Books about Fear of the Dark

Children’s Books about Fear of Spiders and Snakes

Children’s Books about Fear of Being Alone

Adult- Battlefield of the Mind, Joyce Meyer

SCRIPTURES for FIGHTING FEAR, MyLifeTree.com

THANKS FOR READING! PLEASE SUBSCRIBE FOR A WEEKLY IDEA OF HOW WE CAN “BOOK TIME WITH OUR KIDS!”