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Allow me to paint a picture for you. A young boy from the city moves to a community out in the country. He knows no one. Everything familiar to him has been left behind at his old home. He must meet new children at school, and he must learn his way around in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

Do you think he is frightened?

Would YOU be frightened?

Would you feel like you were a target for bullies?

FEAR is the director in this all-too-familiar scene. And that is true whether your child plays the role of the scared child OR the bully. Both read from a script heavily laden with fear. So, how do you help?

The Bible says that “God has not given us a spirit of fear” (2 Timothy 1:7), so if God didn’t give it to us, where did it come from? Hmmmmm?

I. So, the first thing we do is this:

• We learn to call things what they are.
• Fear is from the devil, Satan. Let’s call it like it is!
• There is no person we have reason to fear, because fearing others is a trap (Proverbs 29:25), and God is with us to protect us (Isaiah 41:10).
• The only one we need ever fear is God himself (Luke 12:5), and we can rest assured he does not want to hurt us.

II. Then, the second thing we do is this:

• We learn to recite verses from the Bible that God put there to help us when we are afraid.

You know, the truth is we never really see the whole picture when we are afraid; fear clouds our eyes and muddies the water. The scared child can’t see that the bully is afraid, too. He is afraid of not being respected, not being liked, not being in control, or not being feared.

But God can see the whole picture, so . . . we trust Him to take care of us. In the CD story “In The Beginning” Phil moved to a new community in the country. He soon encountered a bully. But before he even met the bully he was scared by someone who meant him no harm at all.

Fear does that; it can make you scared of friends, too.

So, when we feel afraid we learn to trust God. Sometimes . . . He sends a friend.