The lure and lie of safety
The concept of safety is one that I have long wrestled with, especially since becoming a parent. I long to keep my daughter safe and protected but want her to be able to take risks and live life fully too. How do I balance the two?
Add in faith and trusting in God and the conflict rises to a whole new level. I struggle to trust at times because I know that God doesn’t promise safety in the way that I want. He doesn’t promise that nothing will go wrong, that no harm will come to my family, that life will always be smooth. In fact, He says the opposite. The safety that he brings is a deeper, eternal perspective of safety. It is recognising that this world is temporary and safety here is not the ultimate goal.
Seeking safety in my life would mean missing out on so many opportunities to grow and learn. My life would not be the same. It would be boring. It would be tied up in even greater levels of anxiety if my whole focus was keeping my safety ideals in place, knowing that I can never control every variable.
My challenge is how to live with this knowledge and increase my surrender and trust to God, while helping my daughter feel safe and navigate her anxiety. I can’t promise that there will never be a fire in our house like she has nightmares of. I can’t promise that I will never be gravely ill as she fears. I can only lead her to the truth of God’s faithfulness even when things seem dark.
This post is part of the Five Minute Friday challenge- writing five minutes unedited on the prompt word. This week’s prompt is “safe” and you can read other people’s thoughts here.