I will NOT be afraid!

Philippians 4:6-7

     Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

     A few mornings ago, I dropped my teenage son off at school and began heading to a scheduled doctor’s appointment for myself. Not even a half hour into the school day, I received a text message from my son, claiming that he believed he had just had a small seizure. You see, my youngest son, Christian was diagnosed with epilepsy two years ago and we fight a daily battle of administering medication and monitoring him for unexpected behavior and possible seizure activity. Often times, he can go months on end without a seizure and other times, he will have quite a few in a relatively short period of time. Some seizures will be major grand mal seizures, complete with convulsing and incoherency; while others will be short periods of staring followed by amnesia type symptoms.

     This particular morning, his seizure consisted of the staring/amnesia type symptoms and no one around him, including his teacher had any idea that anything had taken place. Fearful and embarrassed to draw attention to himself, he began texting me in an attempt to persuade me to come and pick him up. Tied up at the doctor’s office, I was unable to get to him during his moment of need. I quickly called the school nurse, who is aware of his situation, and she removed him from class and allowed him to rest in the clinic while she monitored him.

     After my doctor’s appointment, I quickly called the nurse to check on Christian’s status. With the episode already passed, he seemed to be just fine and we agreed that he should return to class, especially since he had missed the prior day due to not feeling well. Minutes later, I received another text from Christian, once again, asking me to come and check him out of school. The over-protective mom in me wanted to run to the school, scoop up my son and head straight to the safety of our home, where I could hover over him and help prevent any further trauma.

     The Lord had a different solution and quickly pricked my heart and spoke to my spirit. If I went and rescued my son, I would be teaching him to run and hide every time he felt fearful and afraid. As he’s growing into a young man, I need to be teaching him to face his fears and trust God to help him walk through them. I fought every motherly instinct inside of me and I responded to his text with this, “Don’t let fear cause you to run away. I’m praying for you; trust God to help you get through the rest of the day.” His response was simply, “ok.”

     Both of us learned a lesson in trust that day!

     What specific thing are you worrying about today? Tell God what you need, thank him for the answer, and learn a lesson in trust today. I think you’ll be surprised at the peace that overwhelms you!

Have a great day!