Fear

As part of our summer school work, my 9 year old son had to come up with a list of 3 things he was afraid of.  Remarkably, it took some doing to produce 3 fears (having a cavity being the worst).  Assuming he was honest, what a wonderful life it must be to not be overcome by fear.  Not a bad life, really:  both parents happily together, mom stays at home, dad home every day by 5:45, no unusual sibling issues.  When I was 9, my fear list went something like this:

• Parents fighting each other, sometimes violently
• Parents fighting my brother and me
• Bullies on the school bus
• Public School, including a certain teacher who disciplined me for working ahead on my assignments (really!) and another who counted my answers wrong because I printed instead of used cursive (To Mrs. Doughty directly:  Have you ever seen a job application requiring cursive?)
• Baseballs pitched to me and/or hit to me

So, I come up with 5 items.

Now, at 45, the list is huge and contains items such as money coming in, money going out, excelling at work, excelling at home, is the AFLAC rep at work trying to take my money, how to get rid of the guy at my front door trying to sell me cleaner, do any of the kids need braces, do I need braces, what's the price of gas today...

The point of my son's lesson in fear is to apply Hebrews 13:5b - "For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"

Good point