Thursday, April 23, 2009

Should I Be Concerned?

I am not sure why. Maybe because his teacher's mother just died, but my seven-year-old has been doing something for the past four or five days that makes me wonder.

I'll just be sitting on the sofa reading or grading papers, and he comes up, throws his arms around me, hugs me really tight and says urgently, "But, Mom, I don't WANT you to die! I LOVE you!" I assure him I'm not planning to die any time soon, but no one except God knows for sure. And I tell him I love him, too, very much.

Has anyone else experienced this, and should I do anything more about it?

3 comments:

Laurie said...

Disclaimer: You asked!!

Is he too young to realize of these truths?
Psalm 39:4 says:
"O LORD, make me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!

Psalm 90: 12 says:
So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.


He may not be able to put words to it, but maybe he’s getting a sense of our days are not our own and things do happen. "Bad things happen and who is to say a bad thing won’t happen to me?" But in all these things we trust in the Lord! We walk by faith, not by sight and no matter WHAT, God is good and He is in control. He will love and care for us always and no matter what!
Romans 8
"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And I might add something like: "Whatever God says or does we can trust completely!
We know this, but sometimes we forget. I will remind you if you forget. Will you remind me if I forget?”

That is probably way more than you wanted to hear. You know your sweet Joel. He may have just needed some momentary Mommy reassurance. But he may need some more building blocks for his faith too. It just seems like such an opportunity to talk about God's sovereignty and His complete trustworthiness - not that nothing bad will ever happen- but that if it does and whatever it is, God is still faithful, good and completely trustworthy! His word is Bountiful with these truths!

Laurie said...

Hi Zoanna. Don't know if it's normal, but Maggie has a recurring fear of me and/or jason dying. She also has fears of being lost and separated from me. I pray with her and try to teach her what I'm still learning: to cast her cares upon the Lord.

Joe said...

You did exactly the right thing, and should continue to do it when the situation arises.