Mom Moment

We went to the grocery store today, and much to my surprise, Jonah decided he was not a fan of the cart anymore. Not because he didn't like it, but because he was SCARED of it. Any time that I would stop the cart and walk over to the shelf to get an item, he would get really nervous and say, "falling, falling." He kept thinking he was going to fall! I kept trying to help him understand that he was strapped in and wasn't going anywhere. He hasn't fallen off or out of anything that I know of; it's such an interesting new fear of his. Where did it come from all of a sudden? I didn't like it at all, because I could really see the fear in his eyes. He'd never been that way before. And as a mother, you just instinctively want to protect your child from fear. I especially do, because I remember as a child being so afraid of a lot of things. So it bothered me a lot that he was so scared of a danger that wasn't even real. I was pondering this whole thing, and God brought this thought to mind: I dealt with a whole lot of fear as a child, but it truly was the only thing that really enabled me to see my need for Christ while at a young age. When you're 7, you're not exactly fully aware of your depravity! (Or at least I wasn't) But through my battles with fear, I realized that things plagued me and that Satan is busy wanting to destroy my life. So I was reminded afresh today of how important it is as Jonah's mom to not make it my goal to protect him from every single possible hurt in this world (not that that would be possible anyway) but rather to be ready to lead him through it, showing Christ to him. I want to make sure that when I'm calming him or comforting him or just loving on him when he's sad, my words are full of truth and always point to Christ. He's not too young for me to be sure that my words are edifying when he's going through some kind of struggle. Ok, I'm off to Starbucks with a friend!