Facing our Fears

I don't have your "normal" fears.  There are 3 phobias that plague me.  One - stinging insects.  This is one of the reasons why I hate summer.  (Yes, I HATE summer!)  When I was about 5 years old, I was stung by a large bee on my eyelid while on vacation.  Since having children, I have tried to face that fear so my kids don't have the same phobia.  It hasn't worked very well.  Partially because I still panic when I see one.  This includes bees, wasps, hornets, etc.  I must say that I am doing better around them than I was 5 or 6 years ago.

My second phobia - people with rubber bands.  I don't trust them.  My actual fear is that they will shoot the rubber band and blind someone when it snaps in someone's eye.  I am not sure what this fear stems from, but I have a feeling it's something my mom said when we were kids.  (Similar to the popular "you're gonna shoot your eye out" from The Christmas Story).  You will not find rubber bands in my house.  If you do, I was either unaware that we had it or it belongs to a game.  I throw rubber bands that enter my house away.  I haven't even tried to face this fear.  I just get rid of the ability to shoot them.

My third phobia - holding hot drinks around active kids.  When my son was just over a year old, we went on a hayride.  Afterwards, hot chocolate was served.  I was holding J while drinking my hot chocolate.  As I lifted the cup to my mouth for a sip, J hit the bottom of the cup throwing the hot chocolate into my face.  I had blisters and spent the rest of the evening with a cold wash cloth on my face.  For a few years, I literally shook in fear whenever a small child came near me while I was drinking something hot.  Nowadays, I'm not quite as scared, but I'm still very nervous.

Yesterday, my daughter, K, faced one of her fears and conquered it.  There's a McDonald's with a PlayPlace that we sometimes go to for fun.  It wasn't my plan yesterday but Chick-Fil-A was way too packed so off to McDonald's we went instead.

Here it is: the PlayPlace.  See that meshed or netted area on the right?  That is what kept K from sliding down the yellow slide.  Crossing that mesh was the only way to get to the yellow slide.

It's not the height.  All 3 of my kids had no issues climbing to the top in order to go down the green slide.  You can see J up there here.

Little A was just fine with the height of the green slide and the mesh leading to the yellow slide. 

 As shown below.

I remember when Little A wasn't quite big enough to climb these steps.

She wanted so badly to climb them and go down the slides.  Little A has no fear!

We have been to this particular PlayPlace several times and each time, K crawls up to the mesh, tries a step, then backs out.  On this particular day, J was having a hayday with it, calling her a scaredy cat.  This caught on with the other kids who got confused and started calling Little A a scaredy cat.  She was a bit upset with this because it wasn't her who was scared, it was K.  After a bit, K became extremely frustrated as J wouldn't let it go.  I finally had to tell J to quit.  Once he did, the other kids quit too.  But, I think all this torment just pushed her to face her fear head on.

She climbed up, put her foot out there and...

...suddenly she was across.  But in order to get to that yellow slide, she had to cross not 1, but 2 mesh areas.

But she faced it and conquered it.  She was able to go down the yellow slide several times after this.

She is very proud of herself.  I'm proud of her, too.

Isaiah 41:10 "Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

Isaiah 41:13 "For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.' "