If you’ve ever had to manage your own or (yikes) your kids’ anxieties about anything, you’ll know how hard it can be. 💔
Yet, what worries us often never happens. The “what-if” questions just gnaw and grow on us.
Earlier this week, when Cliff and I signed our wills, the whole exercise of even imagining the worst happening to ourselves in the mission field and our kids (evacuating them out if we were both dead etc) shook us deeply. We both know real friends who’ve died or lost their children on the field. It helped us count the cost (Phil 3:10).
But when I saw my kids finally understand the gravitas as they teared to sleep, my heart broke.
Little did I know that even before all of this happened, a parcel from a woman I had never met was already on its way to us, with a book that only God could have known my kids would need.
The “what if’s” book and others, moved me close to tears as I saw how it ministered and healed my children. God gave me the idea to extend it into a craft and board lesson, and I pray it’ll inspire you to try it out with your kids, too.
Basically, for every “what if” monster they had (“what if I have no friends in my new school?”), I encouraged them to think of a counter “what-if” (“what if I end up making great friends there?”)
As I saw their little eyes light up, sparkling, one of them told me, “I’m not scared anymore, Mama.”
“That’s good, sweetheart. When the enemy gives you a scary thought like ‘What if you lose your parents,’ tell it the opposite what-if, like ‘What if my parents grow old with me and watch my children grow up?’”
“Really, Mama? You’ll do that for me? I hope you’ll stay with me when you grow old.”
I’ve always felt inept as a parent, but I know now, more than ever, that God equips us to be the best parents to our children than we could ever imagine, because He lives in us.
*this is not a sponsored post. Just grateful to @kidkat.co ‘s loving curation for our family- she has very kindly shared a promo code <WAIJIA10> for 10% off your order. 💛 Be blessed.