Thursday, September 20, 2007

Faith and Fear

"So do not dread, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." -Isaiah 41:10

Daniel and I have both been struggling with fear lately. We're now up to 10-11 teachers that have been sick since the start of the school year; we currently have a few sick and 2 in the hospital. Almost all of those who have been sick have had Dengue; either the common form or the hemorrhagic.
As a result, we have been struggling with the fear of contracting Dengue ourselves, or, even worse, having Jeremiah get sick. While proper precautions are necessary- keeping unscreened doors clothes, being careful when going outside (the Dengue mosquito is a day-time mosquito) by putting bug spray on ourselves and having Jeremiah wear long legged footies, etc. ,I've been letting it control me through fear. Controlling fear, unlike caution, is not healthy. It only creates anxiety about what I cannot control. And if I'm living in fear, I'm not living in Faith that God will take care of us. Isaiah 41:10, as well as some other passages, especially Psalm 112:6-8, brought me great comfort this morning. No matter what happens, God is protecting us. And who better to trust than the One who created us and sustains us? Living in peace and faith, while still using caution, is much better than living in fear!
Please pray that Daniel and I will continue living in faith, and pray for the health of the school, ourselves, and our precious baby!

1 comment:

Beth @ The Natural Mommy said...

Oh wow. I would be fighting fear, too! Or, more likely, I'd be giving in to fear. I'll be praying; let us know when the cause for fear passes!