I am afraid he comes by it honestly. Both Jeremy and I struggle with worry and fretfulness. It is hard to trust the LORD at times. O has been struggling with nightmares. He is terrified that a tornado will come and swoop him away. I guess it all started when we experienced some bad storms late in the summer. The tornado sirens were blaring, we were glued to the TV while tracking the storm's path, both sets of grandparents called concerned that the storm was coming our way.
The nightmares started about a week later. He will wake up shaking with fright, crying, and it will take him hours to calm down enough to get back to sleep. In one nightmare, he said he saw the tornado coming, but he was not too scared because he saw me in the distance. I yelled at him which way to run so that he could escape from the tornado. Only I steered him wrong, and instead of avoiding the tornado, I led him right into it. (That just broke my heart!)
We have tried so many things to help calm Owen's great fear: Before bed, we pray that God will take the fear away and fill his mind with thoughts of Him. We recite scripture we have memorized, especially Psalm 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid." We have even had very deep conversations about taking thoughts captive, a difficult concept for a five year old to grasp. Nothing has helped really. It takes the poor guy hours to relax enough to fall asleep since he is so scared. He is so very tired, as are we.
We have tried so many things to help calm Owen's great fear: Before bed, we pray that God will take the fear away and fill his mind with thoughts of Him. We recite scripture we have memorized, especially Psalm 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid." We have even had very deep conversations about taking thoughts captive, a difficult concept for a five year old to grasp. Nothing has helped really. It takes the poor guy hours to relax enough to fall asleep since he is so scared. He is so very tired, as are we.
We don't know what else to do to help him. My friend Cindy pointed this verse out to me today. Proverb 3:24 "When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet." How very appropriate! We will memorize this and pray it over Owie. I pray this helps my sweet Boy, that he can take refuge in the One who loves him best. What a tough lesson for my Guy!
2 comments:
My cousin Russell used to struggle with this. I convinced him that tornadoes only hit trailer parks, not houses. I then told him that there were no trailer parks near him. He never worried about it again, and he would remind me of this when it rained. True story and it worked... Don't know if it's the best remedy, but I had to say something to a kid who was terrified.
So sad. We have several scripture memory songs about worry and sleep, including the one you mentioned from Proverbs 3. Remind me and I'll try to gather them for you.
Chrys
Post a Comment