Recipes for a Sweet Child Amid ChallengesChikamu

Fear is a natural response that can even be healthy at times, but once it takes root in our hearts, it can be challenging to uproot fear and overcome it. What are you afraid of? Spiders? Heights? Or something else?

How about your kids? Sometimes our fears are warranted, but often, they’re exaggerated or illogical. However, one of the worst things we can do when our child is struggling with fear is to tell them, “There’s nothing to worry about.” For our kids, the fear is real even if what they’re afraid of isn’t.

When we’re consumed by fear, we don’t feel safe. So, we need help reorienting ourselves and feeling secure. As parents, we can validate and normalize the fear our kids are facing:

“I understand you’re afraid right now.”

“You’re not alone.”

“I’m here for you.”

“How can I help?”

“What do you need?”

These types of statements let our children know we’re with them and they can trust us.

Fear is a very common problem, even for faith-filled believers. In fact, the word fear is used more than five hundred times in the King James Version of the Bible. The good news is, we aren’t without hope or resources to help us overcome our fear. God’s Word is filled with so many promises to comfort and encourage us when we experience fear.

Teachable Moment

For younger kids, you can choose a favorite Bible story, like David and Goliath or Daniel in the lions’ den. Read the Scripture or watch a video about it. Talk about how afraid David or Daniel must have been and what they did to overcome that fear. Focus on how God protected and provided for them.

For older kids, encourage them to find passages of Scripture about fear. They can copy the verses and work on memorizing them. I like to create journals with my kids where they can keep their favorite Scriptures as an easy reference in difficult circumstances.

For teens, this is a great time to teach them how to use topical word searches in their Bibles, cross-reference Scriptures, and even utilize other Bible study tools such as concordances and commentaries to study the topic in-depth.

Parents’ Prayer

Dear Lord, I pray Your perfect love would cast out all fear in our family. Fill our home with Your peace and protect our hearts and minds. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.