Ellie’s
eyes popped open. What was that? Her heart started thumping rapidly in her
chest. She pulled her covers over her
head slowly, gently, with great care, so that whatever had made the noise would
not see her. Once safe under the light
summer quilt, she reached around until her hand sunk into a soft squishy
object. There he was. She pulled her special Teddy close to her
chest under the covers and strained her ears for another sound. Bump, thump, screech. It found her!
There covers flew as Ellie lost all secrecy and tore from her little
bed, Teddy trailing right along, dangling by his right back paw as Ellie’s feet
flew down the hallway to her parents room.
“Daddy,
Daddy” she called as she skidded to a stop on the braided rug that lay next to
her parent’s bed. “Daddy, help me, something’s
trying to come in my window!” The Daddy
in question pried his eyes open a crack.
“It’s
just the tree Ellie.” As sleep left him,
and Ellie’s fear did not, he pulled her close and explained further. “Remember, the big oak tree behind the house,
when the wind blows hard enough the branches hit your window.”
“The
tree Daddy?”
“Yes,
just the tree, nothing to be afraid of.”
Ellie
nestled into her father’s embrace, her heart returning to its normal rhythm.
“I’m
glad you came to find me sweetie; you can always come to me when you are
afraid, and for any other reason.”
“Thank
you Daddy.” Ellie murmured as she drifted back into peace in her father’s
trustworthy arms…
Who do you relate
to in that little story? Little Ellie,
or the parent? I have many memories like
that. I had a lot of nightmares as a
child, enough that I was often afraid to go to sleep at night and would keep
myself awake as long as I possibly could.
I remember running to my parents room many times. Sometimes I wouldn’t even wake them up, I
would just sit on the floor by their bed, feeling safe in their presence.
I also relate to
the parents. With four kids I have experienced
the nighttime and tuck in time fears frequently, and have had to be the fear
chaser. I do my best to empower my
kids. I tell them to pray, take their fear
to God, and repeat scripture verses.
Look over Ellie’s
story again. Change Ellie to you, and
her father to God, and her fears to your fears.
That’s how it works! We have a
fear, we run to God in prayer, share it with him, crawl him into his arms, and
accept his peace.
At least, that’s the
way God intends it to work. And you know
what, he WILL NEVER say, “oh just go back to bed!”. He is always there for us! Sometimes we tend to get in the way of the
process. Sometimes we stay huddled under
the covers trying to deal with the fear ourselves. We may think God doesn’t care about the
little things and would just tell us to “Just go back to bed!” (as we are prone
to do). We may thing that God isn’t
listening, or ‘my problems are not important enough’… Well, pick up you ‘Shield of Faith’
(Ephesians 6:16) and turn away those fiery arrows of Satan! Pray!
Give the fear to God! And have
peace!
1 Timothy 1:7 For God
has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self –
discipline.
Isaiah 41:10 Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be
discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up in my victorious right hand.
Isaiah
41:13
For
I hold you by your right hand
–
I, the Lord your God.
And I say to you,
“Don’t be afraid.
I
am here to help you.”
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