"You don't need to be afraid. God is with us!"

It doesn't sound nearly as sweet in a title, but if you could have heard Sophia wandering all through the house yesterday, telling everyone in sight the same words, I'm absolutely sure it would have made you smile.

"Mom, we don't need to be afraid.  God is with us."

"Noah, you don't need to be afraid.  God is with us.  He's everywhere."

"Phoebe, it's ok.  You don't need to be afraid; God is with us."  (Never mind that Phoebe's crying had more to do with wanting to sleep than anything else.)

What brought on her non-stop reminders?  Thunder.  It was a beautiful, perfect, mid-day mountain thunderstorm.  We've had several already this spring, and the only thing different about this one was that it happened right at lunch time, when we were all awake and attentive, rather than cowering in bed with every thunder-induced tremble.

We had actually walked over to preschool to pick Sophia up at the end of her day.  The first crash came just around the corner from home.  The first sprinkles began to fall just as we rolled the stroller into the garage.  We fled to the safety of the house, as Sophia began her repetitions and Noah eventually took his hands off his ears.  I opened up the front door and brought the kids to the screen door to watch the magic.
The conversation went something like this:

Me:  "Who makes the thunder?"
Kids:  "GOD!"
Me:  "What's something we make?"
Sophia:  "Macaroni and cheese."
Me:  "Are we afraid of macaroni and cheese?"
Sophia:  "NO!  That'd be so silly!"
Me:  "Well, I'm sure God's not afraid of the thunder because He made it.  And so I don't think we need to be afraid either."

Now, I just need to keep reminding myself of the same thing!  With all the crazy things that have been happening around us lately, I've caught glimpses of a spirit of fear beginning to take hold of me.  That's not a feeling I am accustomed to.  It's new to me, and I am quite certain I can do without it.  I've been praying that very thing lately.  And maybe, if I just keep repeating it often enough, like Sophia, it won't be long before I begin to feel it in the same way that she did in the midst of the thunderstorm!