I suppose every child deals with nighttime fears from time to time. My 3 1/2 year old has been relatively fear-free until very recently. One night he asked to go to the bathroom, and as we sat there lit only by a nightlight, he talked to me incessantly about random things. After about 5 minutes of this (and knowing that he had never gone number two at this time of the evening), I realized that there was more to this.
"Drew, do you really have to go to the bathroom, or do you not want to go to bed?" He replied honestly, "I don't want to go to bed. The bugs will come into my room and hurt me." My response was what I believe any mother's natural response would be. "Drew, the bugs won't hurt you. And they can't get into the house." "But the wasps will use their hands and pry the door open." Thus went the see-saw of words between Drew and me. He gave a reason for his fear. I responded with a logical answer.
That wasn't working.
Next I went to the next most natural thing. "Drew, God will protect you. He watches over you." Expecting this to calm him down, we went through a similar see-saw of words, even getting into theological questions an adult has trouble comprehending, much less explaining to a 3-year-old. Clearly, this wasn't working either.
Then I remembered what I did when I was a child of about 10 or 11 when I was scared. I quoted a verse my mom taught me in G.A.'s: "I will trust and not be afraid." (Isaiah 12:2) I'll try this, I thought. It can't hurt.
"Drew, I'm going to teach you a new Bible verse that I said when I was a little girl when I got scared." I had him repeat the phrase after me. After only saying the verse two times, he was calm and quiet. I kissed him goodnight, half expecting him to call for me again a little while later.
I didn't hear from him until the next morning.
Don't get me wrong. I believe in the power of God's word. But this was amazing even to me. The next night, he did the bathroom ritual all over again, this time being scared of the frogs. Having learned my lesson from the previous night - and halfway wanting to test this again to see if it "worked" - I skipped the logic and even skipped talking about God's protection and went straight to the same Scripture.
He was off to sleep in no time, his fears erased.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
Obviously this was a life lesson in parenting for me. Scripture is relevant and active in no matter the situation my children find themselves. And it's up to me to teach them Scripture - even at this young age - and how to apply it to their daily lives.
Yet, there is also a lesson for me as an adult. What fears am I facing? Jesus made it clear that we were not to fear but instead to trust in Him. (That doesn't mean our worst earthly fears won't come to pass; even most of Jesus' disciples - to whom he told not to fear - were eventually killed for their faith. Instead, it means that when we have trusted in Jesus for our eternal salvation, we ultimately have nothing to fear.)
But when we do find ourselves faced with fear, what do we do? Do we respond with logic? Do we respond with our own [possibly incorrect] understanding of God? Or do we go straight to Scripture? The latter will be the only infallible response.
Scripture is the inspired Word of God that is active today, even thousands of years after it was first penned. Even though I've seen it at work in my life time after time, it takes on even a new meaning when I see it work in my child's young life as well.
