Inside: When my little girl’s bad dream gave me a wake-up call about worry. ~

One night many years ago, I woke up suddenly to find my daughter Molly’s little face peering at me from just beyond the mattress. She’d had a bad dream and needed some comfort.

In her dream, her bike was across the street by the neighbor’s house. Randy was working in the garage, presumably with the door wide open, and she had gone somewhere with me and older sister Lilly.

I was confused, and not only because I had just been roused from a deep sleep. What on earth was so scary about the scene she had just described?

Her Alarming Answer

“What if someone steals the bike?” she whispered in my ear.

Oh.

The “scary” part of her dream was her fear that someone might steal her bike, even though that was highly unlikely.

Suddenly, I was wide awake.

I worried a lot as a child and young adult. It was so bad that my childhood nickname, compliments of my five older siblings, was “Worry Busby.”

Ironically, or perhaps not, freedom from that stranglehold came as I prayed for God’s will, not mine, to be done when Randy and I were dealing with infertility. As it turned out, God’s will for our family included the miracle of two adoptions, and, for me, of being released from my lifelong struggle with worry.

My Wake-Up Call

Even at the ripe old age of 9, Molly was a planner. She always thought ahead and liked to have contingencies for every situation.

But that night, planning hadn’t invaded her dreams; worry had. And her appearance in my room that night was a wake-up call, in more ways than one.

As I recall, it happened during a stressful season when I had slipped back into my old habit and was agonizing about an insurance issue that was beyond my control.

I can’t prove that my daughter was troubled about possibly losing her bike in her dream because I was worrying about insurance. Given my history, though, the timing hardly seemed coincidental. Kids pick up vibes from their parents, and the ones emanating from me during that time were especially anxious.

Hence, the wakeup call.

When Worries Loom

As much as I am able, as long as I live, I must be vigilant about not passing on to my children something that had been so debilitating in my own life. Even now that my daughters are both young adults—or perhaps especially because they are.

Time and again, I return to the petition that helps me whenever fear starts creeping in. “Not my will, but yours be done.” I pray.

Over and over, I repeat the words Jesus uttered in the garden just before his crucifixion until the worry flees and God’s peace floods my soul once again.

That night all those years ago, I took my daughter back to bed armed with hugs and the assurance that Daddy would never let anyone take her bike right out from under his nose. And I returned to sleep myself, eternally grateful that my own heavenly Father “has not given [me] a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

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What are some practical or helpful ways that you have found to battle worry or fear during any season of your life? Please share in the comments.

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with InstaEncouragements and Let’s Have Coffee.