Another Teachable Moment

Lately Rebekah has been dealing with fear in her life. She was never afraid of thunderstorms as a toddler, and she would even chase bugs to the point that I thought she would try to eat them. Over the past few days Rebekah began to express fear of the dark, fear of bugs, and even over the last several months she has been terrified of dogs and cats. She didn't even want to play out in the yard because a few dogs run loose in our neighborhood. Last week Rebekah said she was scared of everything, and for a couple nights in a row she was getting up out of bed for various reasons: for a hug, to tell us something she forgot, or just because she couldn't sleep. We put a nightlight in her room, but it was keeping her awake. One night I stayed in her room extra long for more cuddles and left her door cracked.

On Monday I gathered some verses in Scripture about fear and discussed them with Rebekah. The main verse we focused on is Psalm 56:3-4 which says, "When I am afraid I will trust in You. In God whose Word I praise. In God I will trust." I remembered Ryan's and Ginny's son Andrew singing on Ryan's blog and found it online to download. It comes straight from this passage of Scripture, and the song has been wonderful for giving Rebekah peace. I also discussed with Rebekah the verses that say, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God" and "Cast your cares on Him, for He cares for you." We talked about God being with her all the time, and that He is watching over and protecting her. We have had little problems since. We do crack the door to let a little light in the room, but she feels much more secure since we have been focusing on the Scripture passages dealing with fear.

Another great thing is that in AWANA Cubbies last week's verse was, "I trust in You, O Lord." What a great verse to tie in with Psalm 56! This week's verse for Cubbies is "Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Lord." I found a song of it from the same collection as the other song. It is from Steve Green's "Hide 'Em In Your Heart" collection. Along with this Rebekah learned Michael W. Smith's version of "Hosanna" and had her Bible verse memorized in one day!