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Do you have an anxious child? One who worries and stresses about everything? Here's one thing you can do to help: Treat their fears as important.
So often, our response to our kids when they are scared is to dismiss their fears. I remember as a kid, I was scared of the dark. For some reason, I did not have a night light, and my room was really dark, so dark I could not see my closet door across the room. I just knew I heard that door opening and something was coming out of that closet to get me. Night after night, I laid in bed terrified of whatever was in that closet. It never came, but that didn’t matter.
How would you handle that situation if your child had those bedtime fears? Would you open up the closet and say, “See, there is nothing in that closet that can hurt you. No bad guy, no monster, nothing. There is nothing to be scared of.” While those facts may be true, I would still have had the same fears.
What if you related to me about it and let me talk about my fears? “You know, I was scared of the dark when I was your age. Tell me what is happening at night. What do you think is going to come out of that closet?”
When we acknowledge and talk about their fears, it's easier to bring those fears out into the open where we can work with the child and God to deal with them. Sometimes by asking questions, we can get the child to change their belief about the fear. Even if that does not work, we can at least pray with the child for God’s protection and for strength to fight the fear.
Anxious children can become confident children when their fears are handled well by their parents.
