The monsters in our lives; are they real, or imagined?
The little girl I babysit was playing happily on the floor. Suddenly she cries and runs to me. I pick her up and ask what’s wrong. She tells me there is a monster, and that she’s scared.
To her the terror is real. To me, nothing has changed in the room, the lighting is still the same, the weather outside is still the same, but she is scared.
So I ask her where the monster is. She thinks about it for a minute and then points to a small crack in the ceiling. Hmmm, So then I ask her what the monster is doing. She thinks again and tells me it is looking at the curtains.
I ask her if the monster is happy, or mad, or sad. She smiles at me, “I think it’s happy”. I tell her to wave at the monster, she does. “Did the monster wave back?” She nods and smiles, “Good! Do you know what that means?” She looks at me and shakes her head. “If the monster waves back, it means it is a friendly monster and wants to play.”
She giggles and lays her head on my chest, “Are you ready to get down now?” She looks at me with big eyes “Monster?”
“It’s a friendly monster, remember? Why don’t you go tell it hi?” She goes over, pretends to talk and runs back to me giggling. By handling her fear, whether real or imagined, she is able to play and be happy again.
What if the little girl hadn’t run to me? What if she had sat there in fear? She wouldn’t have wanted to play by herself anymore, she would’ve not looked up for fear of seeing the monster. She would have been miserable. But she ran to me for protection and once we talked, the monster didn’t seem scary any more.
It got me thinking though. How many times do we see a monster in our lives? We are going along happily and suddenly, there it is!
We now have two options. We can pretend the monster is not there and be miserable and fearful over everything, or we can run to our protector and talk.
And when we talk, He can calm our fears.
When we say “I’m scared” He says:
The Lord is your light and salvation, whom shall ye fear? Psalms 27:1
Be strong, fear not: behold your God will come… Isaiah 35:4
Fear not I am with thee: be thou not dismayed, for I am thy God… Isaiah 41:10
There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out all fear. 1John 4:18
When we say “I’m to weak, I can’t do it” He says:
I will strengthen thee, yea, I will uphold thee by my strong right hand Isaiah 41:10
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13
The Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation… Exodus 15:2
He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Isaiah 40:29
When we worry, He says:
Take no thought for your life…. behold the fowls of the air…your heavenly father doth feed them, Are ye not much better than they? Matt. 6:25-26
Why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies, how they grow…Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matt. 6:28-29
Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? …For your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
I could keep going, Gods promises to us are unfathomable and so many times we forget them. So the next time you find a “monster” in your life. Run to the Lord and listen to what he has to say. Many times those monsters can turn into a thing of beauty when you sit back and watch the Lord work.
Can I pray for you? Jesus can overcome the monsters in our lives, whether they are real or imagined, He can overcome all.
Other Lessons from Little Ones you may enjoy reading.
Thank you for this inspiring post!! It’s so good to know that our Father is always there, and when he go to Him, He’ll calm our fears. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Rebecca 🙂
THIS IS SO PERFECT for us right now! I’m going to email you!
thank you! Yes you can always pray for me and my family and businesses. God knows what we need {{{HUGS}}}
I came by because you were kind enough to stop by own site and I found this inspiring post. You are so right- there is no reason for us to sit in fear. The love of our Father is a warm security blanket for us. And the Philippians verse has gotten me so many things. Beautiful writing.
I love Philippians! and I’m glad you stopped by 🙂
This is a great analogy. We are “spooked” by so much in life. And there is so much in scripture telling us not to be afraid. We really are like children, who need MUCH reassurance! I’m new to Into the Word Wed. and I’m so enjoying connecting w/ other Christian woman!
Yes we are “spooked” 🙂 way to often.
i sometimes think that maybe these monsters are a thing of beauty i disguise in a way? if that makes sense, like how said they can turn into a thing of beauty when we see the Lord work..he takes that “bad” thing and i believe Always always something good stems from it…whenever we face hard times or scary things we can rest assuredly that GOd is w/us and for us. I LOVE this whole post!
What a brilliant way to change their focus! I love how you turned it to us and our relationship with the Lord and His word! Thank you for sharing and for linking up with Simply Helping Him 🙂
I loved how you comapaired this situation to the worries of our everday life. I am so thankful we can always run to our Father! Thank you for linking up with Legacy Leaver Thursdays! We loved having you there and hope to see you again.
Blessings~
Shari
I never considered having such an open conversation with my daughters about the things that scare them. I would imagine this approach is empowering. Thank you for sharing a fresh perspective. and thank you for stopping by my place. I’m so glad you did. I might have otherwise missed this wisdom!
It seemed to work. She still talks about the monster and tells it hi, but she’s not scared any more 🙂 Its just funny to see a kid looking at the cealing and talking.
This is your best post yet 🙂 Funny and creative way you handled the “monster” and really a good reminder for us adults!
Thank you for this!! My son has a terrible fear of storms. We have tried so many things to help him each time it storms. And lately that has been daily around here. We have incorporated him looking up scripture and prayer. It helps him but it he still has a true fear that we are praying God will help him with
Hi Piper, I think its normal for kids to be scared of storms. What has helped the 2 yr old is when we go out side to see the pretty clouds and seeing that there was nothing out there to hurt her seemed to help a lot.
We are so blessed to have a God we can run to when we need Him. Thank you for sharing this reminder at Thrive @ Home!
I had a similar situation with one of my daughters recently. And I encouraged her to draw a picture of her “monster.” Turns out, that monster wasn’t so scary after all.
You handled this so well. Most of the “monsters” in our life aren’t so scary, once we get up close to them and see them for what they really are.
Good picture of how we ought to run to Him when the “monsters,” real or imaginary, threaten, rather than just to try braving it out in our flesh. God reveals truth about the monsters’ powerlessness before Him like no one else can — through His word and by His Spirit — the best comfort and guidance around!
Absolutely! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I love this! What a neat way to talk to her about the “monster” and such a great analogy.
Thanks. And funny thing, my post is like your blog name, and your recent post is like my blog name!
haha! that is funny. 🙂