Parenting Moment: Barricading in Fear

It’s easy to smile inside at our children’s fears, knowing they’re irrational and that the solution they’ve come up with to protect themselves wouldn’t work anyway. Yet as moms, we often have own set of irrational fears and vain attempts to control the future.

We desperately want to protect our children–to give them everything. We worry about their future and try desperately to control it. But we can’t, and our attempts to do so are as silly as trying to barricade against a hurricane with a gate.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” Psalm 127:1 (ESV)

Unless God watches over our children, all our best efforts are in vain. God has us–and them–in His hands. While He may allow hard things, we can trust He sees a bigger, eternal picture.

I once heard that we’re not powerful enough to mess up God’s plan–that is such a freeing truth. Yes, we should be diligent, but at the end of the day, we have to rest in God’s sovereignty and trust He loves our little ones even more than we do. He’s bigger than our mistakes and shortcomings. He knows better what they (and we) need than we do.

I’m working on letting my fears go too, learning to remind my heart of God’s greatness and turn my cares to Him. I can’t control the future–my attempt to barricade against all future ills doesn’t work. But God already has the future safely in His hands. That’s a truth to cling to.