Praying Circles Around your Children, Week 5
Triggers
This is the last week of our study, Praying Circles Around your Children!
It’s been a great study. I am glad you took the time to study with me!
The last circle-praying through the Word for your children is an awesome task. It is a sowing project of mammoth proportions. I keep random notes everywhere, so if you are diligent and disciplined enough to write in a Bible for each child, then Godspeed and God bless. I will stick with my posty-notes and ask God to bless my randomness. He will. He promises in Isaiah that HIS WORD will not return void. It won’t return empty. It is out there in the atmosphere doing what God commissioned it to do.
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth;
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent.
Isaiah 55:10-11
I’d like to switch gears a bit and delve into praying for hurt children.
Saturday I went to lunch with daughters two and three and a son-in-law. We were driving to the restaurant when I felt my old nemesis rise up in my chest- fear. My heart rate increased. My face felt hot, my palms sweaty. For the next hour, I was on the edge of panic. I cried out to God (in my head), “Why? What is going on? I thought I was past all this!” I’m not sure what set off the panic, the change of plans? Not being in the driver’s seat?
After my parent’s divorce, my father moved from state to state. When he came in the summer to pick us four kids up, the departure was swift. We packed our bags in the trunk of his car and sped down the lane, leaving a trail of dust behind us, Mom growing smaller in the distance, standing on the porch watching us disappear. This is the moment fear gripped me, the familiar faded; the unknown lay before me. Anxiety choked me while my stomach threatened to explode its contents. No one explained where we were going. I didn’t have a map. My sensitive soul craved positive words of affirmation. None came.
Once in awhile, fear grips me and I am transported to my childhood once again. After ions of adulthood, a smell, a phrase, a sound, a change in plans cans send me back into the spindly freckle-faced body. Logic leaves. Fear reigns for a time until I circle- God has not given unto me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7)
It is a mistake to think that hurt children grow out of the pain of traumatic experiences. My adopted children have experienced trauma beyond my understanding.. My momentary panic attacks are tangible reminders to pray for my children when I see a precursor to meltdown moments.
Everyone has triggers. Most are minor annoyances. We can switch gears and deal with life. Hurt children have a difficult time switching gears and a simple change in plans can lead to panic and meltdown. I recognize the signs in my children. What are yours?
This is the last week of our study, Praying Circles Around your Children!
It’s been a great study. I am glad you took the time to study with me!
The last circle-praying through the Word for your children is an awesome task. It is a sowing project of mammoth proportions. I keep random notes everywhere, so if you are diligent and disciplined enough to write in a Bible for each child, then Godspeed and God bless. I will stick with my posty-notes and ask God to bless my randomness. He will. He promises in Isaiah that HIS WORD will not return void. It won’t return empty. It is out there in the atmosphere doing what God commissioned it to do.
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth;
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent.
Isaiah 55:10-11
I’d like to switch gears a bit and delve into praying for hurt children.
Saturday I went to lunch with daughters two and three and a son-in-law. We were driving to the restaurant when I felt my old nemesis rise up in my chest- fear. My heart rate increased. My face felt hot, my palms sweaty. For the next hour, I was on the edge of panic. I cried out to God (in my head), “Why? What is going on? I thought I was past all this!” I’m not sure what set off the panic, the change of plans? Not being in the driver’s seat?
After my parent’s divorce, my father moved from state to state. When he came in the summer to pick us four kids up, the departure was swift. We packed our bags in the trunk of his car and sped down the lane, leaving a trail of dust behind us, Mom growing smaller in the distance, standing on the porch watching us disappear. This is the moment fear gripped me, the familiar faded; the unknown lay before me. Anxiety choked me while my stomach threatened to explode its contents. No one explained where we were going. I didn’t have a map. My sensitive soul craved positive words of affirmation. None came.
Once in awhile, fear grips me and I am transported to my childhood once again. After ions of adulthood, a smell, a phrase, a sound, a change in plans cans send me back into the spindly freckle-faced body. Logic leaves. Fear reigns for a time until I circle- God has not given unto me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7)
It is a mistake to think that hurt children grow out of the pain of traumatic experiences. My adopted children have experienced trauma beyond my understanding.. My momentary panic attacks are tangible reminders to pray for my children when I see a precursor to meltdown moments.
Everyone has triggers. Most are minor annoyances. We can switch gears and deal with life. Hurt children have a difficult time switching gears and a simple change in plans can lead to panic and meltdown. I recognize the signs in my children. What are yours?
More next time on triggers. How do you pray for a child in the midst of a meltdown?