My Grace so often teaches me things about myself and God – and lately Grace has been struggling with some fears.  She gets completely irrational when she thinks a bug is on her (or near her).  For a while, any freckle on her body was a bug and she’d FREAK out – I found myself saying “Honey – it’s not a bug, it’s a boo boo” over and over.  And she has this weird fear of the previews before a movie (I know it is strange).  We think it is because of the THX audio test thing at the beginning of some films (which scared her when she was little).   At school, church, or home to this day – if a video is put on – she will cry hysterically until the movie itself starts.

I hate to admit it – but I think she got this from me.  I can be a pretty fearful person.  And it is no wonder these days we are fearful – watch the news on any given night and it is LAUGHABLE the things they are serving up to us that we should fear.  MSN Money today has an article “New Crisis Ahead?  5 Things to Watch,” yesterday one of Yahoo’s top stories was “Six Household Killers” that was about ways kids die at home.  COME ON!   The Swine Flu scare, the Swine Flu vaccine scare, terrorists, global warming, sexual predators.  The list goes on and on.  If you look around and live with your mind on what you see in the news – you will fear.

A friend of mine, Brandon Thomas, Pastor of Keystone Church in Keller preached a message on Fear a few months ago.  He gave an illustration that has stuck with me and that I wanted to share on my very own blog.  It was from Prince Caspian, the fourth book of the Chronicles of Narnia series.  In the books, Aslan represents Jesus.  Lucy has returned to Narnia and is seeing Aslan for the first time in a long time, and after she has grown up quite a bit since the last time they saw each other.

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”

“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.

“Not because you are?”

“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

He used it as a fear illustration ( you really should podcast the entire series – it rocked) because he talked about how EVERYTHING in our lives grows smaller as we get bigger.  If you remember a room or a home a certain way as a child and then you enter it as an adult – you will always say “I remember it so much bigger.” But for a Believer in Christ – Jesus is the exact opposite.  As we grow in Him, and as our needs get more serious and overwhelming, His power to conquer grows in us as well.  We never outgrow Him.  He continuously grows bigger.  In fact, we come to realize that His power and majesty and glory are so vast that in our entire lives if we studied him all day everyday we could only know a small minute fraction of who He is.

Today, a friend told me that with all of his worries, he prayed this week “God, I know you are Lord over this” and “God, I know you were Lord when that happened.”  He spoke the truth of Jesus’ Lordship over all of the confusing, scary areas of his life.  I LOVE THAT.  He is acknowledging the bigness, the Lordship, the Sovereignty of our God and King.

So today, I am speaking the truth of the greatness of our God over my fears.  Over my husband’s job loss, over our finances, over the health of our children, over our future, over my inadequacies, over my complete lack of control of our situation, over our schedule that I cannot seem to work out, over our calling to ministry.  I am like Lucy, I am snuggling up close to our great God and finding Him even bigger and more capable than I ever realized He could possibly be.  And I will do my best to teach my sweet girls the GREATNESS of their King.  To teach them that perfect love drives out fear.  To teach them that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and the only fear they need to allow in their life.

And hopefully, louder than any talk I could give them, I will teach them by example.  🙂