Each day we have the opportunity to teach our children
special things to shape their hearts and minds for this life and the eternal
after. I’ve learned and applied a lot of tools from the Anxiety
class I’ve been attending at church – and I’ve been using them with our kids
too.
"He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of
righteousness For His name’s sake." Psalm 23:2-4
One of the tools is to BREATHE when I feel anxious and my
mind races on a path of unrighteousness. Even before the class I was putting this tool
into practice and helping our children do it when they got upset and couldn’t
“get a grip.” However, now I’m learning
that it’s a way to glorify God! When we
use our body the way God created us to use it, we glorify our Creator and we
can be more useful in His hand if we are not all worried and panicked. Something our teacher noted was that in
Scripture anytime God breathes, He is doing something (and with God it is
usually something pre-t-t-y amazing!)
Along with that, another tool is to use their mouth to tell
their brains what to do. This is the
tool to help stop the brain from going down those paths of unrighteousness by
actually saying out loud, “STOP.”
Usually when we get panicked about something it’s because we’ve
fabricated a scenario in our minds that is not true.
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true,
whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any
virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." Phil
4:8
The other day we were at the beach and one of my kids was
freaking out that the waves were going to come up and get us. Mind you, we were the farthest up the beach
to the reeds, under palm trees and right next to the lifeguard station. I put these tools into practice but they
didn’t work right away. .. so I panicked – no, just kidding! J After a little while we were all fine and had
a great two-hour picnic and play at the beach.
