In light of the recent bombing in Boston, I’ve recognized a knee-jerk reaction within myself when faced with national tragedy. Protect my children. And as I try to protect my children, fear starts to creep in. Questions start to rise. What will my kids see and witness in the world before them? What will the next crazy come up with to cripple my confidence? How do I keep tragedies at an arm’s length? Why are there such cruel individuals? Question, after question. And with every question, more fear seeps in and takes it’s toll on me. Yet I look around and I’m surrounded by amazing people; just as we were in Milwaukee and just as we were in Idaho. There are good people everywhere that are just like me and want the very best for their kids and families.
Yet, I turn on the news and constant coverage of dismal events make me question all over again. The media creates a sense of fear and I turn it off. It’s not worth watching and it’s not worth worrying about. We should celebrate the lives of those that were lost and not look back.
I recently listened to general conference (here) where I heard a talk by Bruce D. Porter titled “Beautiful Mornings“. One line in particular stood out to me, “We need not fear the future, nor falter in hope and good cheer, because God is with us.” God is always with us. Always. That doesn’t mean that their won’t be trials and hardship but he is always there. Porter also quoted Boyd K. Packer in his talk which I was intrigued to read more of.
From April 2004 conference, Packer states: “It may seem that the world is in commotion; and it is! It may seem that there are wars and rumors of wars; and there are! It may seem that the future will hold trials and difficulties for you; and it will! However, fear is the opposite of faith. Do not be afraid! I do not fear.
…Our young people in many ways are much stronger and better than we were. They and we should not be afraid of what is ahead.
…Encourage our young people. They need not live in fear. Fear is the opposite of faith.”
I cannot raise children to fear the world around them; for the potential bad things that could happen to them or others. It is inevitable that they will witness sad and tragic events, just as I have. But there is so much good among the little bad. I will teach them to have faith in hopes of drowning out the fear. God is with us and for that reason alone we are full of good cheer.
I am a total stranger, I came in touch with your sister in law's blog while searching for answers to my son's vision problems awhile back. I clicked on your link from her blog just for fun and I found you to be annoyingly familiar. I couldn't place the face for the life of me though. After being bugged by this for days I happened upon your post about Disneyland awhile back and it clicked. I took a picture of you and your husband and daughter for you at Disneyland in October. Yes I was the strange lady who had no idea how to run a nice camera! Just thought I would fill you in on the irony of what a small world it really is! I enjoy snooping into your life through you blog once in awhile and I admire your spirit and creativity. You have a beautiful family!
I just about died when I read your comment – what are the chances that our paths would cross again!?! The funny thing is, as soon as I read your comment I knew exactly who you were and where we were at when we asked you to take our photo. I remembered your young family with you as well. I love how small the world feels when things like this happen. I'm just glad you saw the disneyland photos because I too have come across someone's blog who looks annoyingly familiar and never did figure out where I knew them from and it just bugs me.
Thanks for stopping by, perhaps one day we'll meet again!