The Fear is Real

A couple of months ago, I was teaching about your thoughts. I do this drama skit, called “Joey’s Mind”. The title character, Joey, has three bad thoughts that ‘walk’ around in his brain. I have 3 people walk around in a box labeled Joey’s Brain, with signs that have the bad thoughts. The thoughts are, “You’re gonna get the Hong Kong Flu.” “You’re ugly, Joey.” And “You’re gonna fail the test.”

Joey then goes and kicks out the bad thoughts from his mind. He uses several Bible verses as a weapon, to kick the bad thoughts out.

Because this is one of those skits that doesn’t really have a script, I just do it and teach it by memory, the teen playing Joey was having trouble remembering all the lines.

So, I sat the kids down and just explained that these are Bible verses that we all should know. When I get scared, I use these same Bible verses to combat the negative thoughts.

I gave them some Bible verses, and really stressed that they should start memorizing them, so they can use them in their own life. I also told them about 2 Tim. 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Have you ever had one of those times, where you are not sure why you said things the way you said them, well this was one of those times. I wasn’t sure why I brought up 2 Tim 1:7, it doesn’t even really go with the skit all that well. But, looking back, I know that it was the Holy Spirit that was urging me to help prepare one of the drama team kids. Side note – listen to those subtle urges, the Holy Spirit talks to us in a still, small voice.

Flash Forward to a couple of weeks ago. By now, you have probably heard about Momo. Here is an article by CNN, in case you want to know more.

Essentially, it started by people sharing about how their kids are watching Youtube videos, and the video instructs them to text a phone number. The text then tells them to do a series of challenges, which ultimately ends in instructing the child to commit suicide. Simply horrifying. 

It later came out that it is all a hoax. Either way, fake or not fake, it succeeded in spreading intense fear to everyone. People were sharing it on Facebook, and telling their kids about it. Kids getting scared. 

It reminded me a lot of the Slenderman thing several years ago. I watched a documentary about Slenderman, and they said that Slenderman was basically a modern day boogey man. I think it is true for Momo as well. 
Eventually, we will stop hearing about Momo, and start hearing rumors about another horrific thing happening to our kids. 

Flash back to one of my Drama Team kids. She went to school one day during the height of the Momo fear-mongering week. Everyone at school was talking about it, and it made her afraid. She then remembered 2 Tim 1:7. She said that every time she got scared she would just say that in her head, “God has not given me a spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind.” She successfully used the Bible as a weapon against fear!

Fear is a very real emotion. Everyone deals with it, but kids especially.
And let me just say, that you will never stop fear from coming, but you can arm your kids with the Word of God, and that will protect them.

Let’s teach our kids what to do when fear comes their way, because it will.
Let’s set our kids up for success. We need to give them the tools and knowledge to fight fear.

That is why we wrote a 4 week curriculum series on Fear.

We wanted to arm kids with the Word of God and with the courage to face fear, and to overcome it.

This is an excerpt from lesson 4 of our FEAR curriculum:

Here are some things to keep in mind when battling what the Bible calls a “spirit of fear.”

1. Fear comes from the enemy. Not all fear comes from the devil, but many times it does. It is not the will of God that fear be in control of your life.
2. You have authority over the enemy. The Bible says that “greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.” Who lives inside of you? JESUS, and Jesus is greater than the devil. We don’t need to be afraid of the devil. He is afraid of us because Christ is inside us.
3. Resist the devil. The Bible tells you to resist the devil. Jesus will help you, but he will not resist the devil for you. Jesus is like the older brother who stands with you, backing you up.
4. Use Your Sword. The Apostle Paul says the Word of God is like a sword. When does the Bible become a sword? When you believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth. Yes, you need to read the Bible, but you need to do more than that. It’s not a sword just because you read the Bible. When you say God’s Word with your mouth, it becomes an offensive weapon.

FEAR, is a four week curriculum that teaches your children to be courageous while facing their fears.

It talks about the good kind of fear and the bad kind of fear. It also talks about courage and how God is greater than it all. 

CLICK HERE to learn more.