As more tragedy and horror fills the news each day, fear escalates. A terrified woman said it this way: “Dr. Dixie, hearing news makes me feel that the world is coming completely apart. I hear new reasons to be afraid every day: terrorism, war, bad economy, climate change, political upheaval, gender confusion and murder. I’m so afraid and I scare my kids, but I don’t know how not to be terrified in the middle of the insanity. Is the end near? Frankly, I hope it is!”
Today’s news is tough on adults, and it’s even harder on children. Children lack the spiritual discernment or life experience needed to process information. If the adults around them aren’t spiritually mature, as the child’s vivid imagination amplifies the fear and danger, there’s no place to find reassurance.
Here are some ways we can help children be less fearful in the troubled times of every decade: Strictly limit TV news. The worst way for a child to develop a worldview is through newscasts that intentionally show the most shocking, disturbing images possible to hook viewers. Children watch and believe it portrays the entire world.
You become your children’s source for news. Discuss current events from a Biblical perspective. Give them opportunity to express concerns and be ready to reassure them of God’s faithfulness. If you’re not convinced yourself, get into the Word and get it settled!
Model courageous living. Children build beliefs about how to live by watching us. Let’s show them how to live in uncertain times, using wisdom while engaging in all the normal activities of life.
Because we don’t feel the emotion of past tragedies, our circumstances feel much worse than those experienced by previous generations. Current technology exposes us instantly to negative news, and we imagine that the world is far worse than it’s ever been.
After receiving the gift of wisdom, Solomon said, “The thing that has been, it is what will be again, and that which has been done is that which will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun... that which is now already has been, and that which is to be already has been; and God seeks that which has passed by so that history repeats itself.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9; 3:15 Amplified) God isn’t waiting for the world to get “bad enough” that He has to come back. If badness was the criteria, the world would have ended in the beginning. Wicked people have been lying, stealing and slaughtering the innocent since satan approached Eve in the Garden. God is patient and tender, and won’t bring this age to an end until every person who will receive Him has received Him.
When Jesus’ disciples asked about the end of the age, He mentioned wars, earthquakes, famine, and disease. The last days Jesus spoke of aren’t future; last days began with His birth. No one knows if we have hours, days, months, or years—but God calls Christians to boldly take the Truth of the Gospel to the ends of the earth in every decade.
That Truth is found in John 3:16-17; 16:33 ( Amplified): For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He gave up His only begotten Son, so that whoever trusts in…and relies on Him shall not come to destruction, but have everlasting life. For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge, reject, condemn or to pass sentence on the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe through Him….“ I’ve told you this, that in Me you may have perfect peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation, trials, distress and frustration; but cheer up! Take courage and be confident…I have overcome the world. I have deprived it of power to harm you. I have conquered it for you.
Call 580-774-2884 to learn how to live confidently in fear-filled circumstances.
Dixie Yoder
