Fear

“I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.”
Psalm 34:4

I can remember when my two year old son first learned to be afraid. The same toddler who exhibited no fear of anything suddenly become fearful in certain situations. The same little boy who rushed headlong into large breaking waves—scaring his father and I to death—began to bury his head in our shoulders when we went outside at night. “De dark scares me,” he would tell us. He was also afraid of sudden loud noises and big machines. It was as if overnight he became aware of the dangers in the world. While I know that some fear of danger will protect him, I also did not want to see fear begin to take root in his little life.

It occurred to me recently that I am not unlike my son at times. While I may not be afraid of the dark or a big choo-choo train, I do allow other fears to spring up in my life. Someone once told me that FEAR is False Expectations Appearing Real. I fear loss of income, childhood illnesses, parenting failures and the future. Like my son, I allow the unknown to overtake my life and cloud my judgment. By doing this, I allow these “what-if” scenarios to take on larger-than-life proportions.

When this happens, I must stop this train of thought and make one of two choices: react to the fear or turn to the Lord. When I react to the fear, I make irrational decisions that generally go against who God has called me to be. What I do out of fear never accomplishes God’s purposes for me. I have learned that God does not honor decisions in my life that are a result of my thinking, “Well, I need to do _____ because I am afraid of ______.” These are the moments where I must stop going down that path, confess my fears, and offer them up to God. By doing this, I can break free from fear and take action according to His divine direction.

King David is a great example of a man who battled with fear taking root in his life. Sometimes he reacted in fear and made bad decisions (I Samuel 27:1) and sometimes he sought the Lord and trusted in Him (II Samuel 2:1). Overall, King David learned to boldly proclaim, “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)” I have learned, like David, to place my trust in the Lord and hold onto Him when fear tries to set up camp in my life. By doing so, I am learning to live a life that is not derailed by fear, so I can be a mom whose purposes are fulfilled.