"From Fear to Faith"
As moms, we have a desire to protect and care for our children that seems to come with the job description. But sometimes that caring can turn to clinging. A crisis occurs. Your child is hospitalized. The TV news flashes a photo of a kidnapped child and you become preoccupied with what might happen. You don’t trust anyone to babysit. Or as a mom of an adolescent, teenagers, you worry about your teen getting in with the wild crowd. When these kinds of fears plague you, here are some ways to move from fear to faith:
Release your children into God’s loving hands. Praying the prayer of release and entrusting your kids to God, is rarely easy. In fact, I think “letting go” is perhaps the hardest work of motherhood! However it occurs, releasing our children to God opens a door for the Lord’s power and presence to come into our children’s life and the situation, and in the process we begin to be freed from our fears.
As Karen Mains once said, “It’s important for parents to walk to this spiritual altar, to offer their children back to the Lord. For many of us, this begins when they are infants…in a dedicatory service…or sometimes on that first day of school watching them walk away from home, looking so small, so vulnerable before the enormous destructive forces that range the world. We suddenly realize we are not all-powerful but are dependent upon supernatural intervention to protect our children from oncoming cars, from cruelty on the playground, from harsh teachers. At each point of our children’s growth, they leave us by degrees, and we must learn to give them again into God’s hands.”
Remember God’s Faithfulness. One way to move toward the goal of releasing your fears and your kids to God is to reflect on how faithful He’s been in your lives in the past. How has He cared for you and your family or protected your children? When fear and worry start to grip you, jot down all God’s past goodness in their lives. Doing this will remind you who your children are, who God is, and what He’s done. He’s the One who created them and promises He’ll work everything in their lives into a pattern for good.
Focus on the Truth instead of your “What If’s.” Pick one verse each week to make into a “Peace Packet” (and carry in a tiny zip-lock bag) that specifically applies to your children or your concerns about them. God’s promises remind you how much He cares for you and your children. They help you remember that the One who created our children loves them more than we ever could and that they are secure in His loving, strong hands. His Word gives you promise after promise and countless Scriptural prayers for you to pray for your kids. (great verses: Isaiah 54:13, 1 Samuel 1:27-28, Psalm 94:19, Eph. 1:17-18)
For more on responding with faith when your panic button is pushed or life is uncertain, read Cheri Fuller’s newest book, Fearless: Building a Faith That Overcomes Your Fear. In bookstores in July or available online.
Copyright Cheri Fuller 2003
