Prayed All My Guts Out... all of them. I prayed my guts out when anxiety showed up in my child. Prayers that were honest, angry, accusatory, angrier, and felt hopeless. The answer to my prayers was not to stop praying but to start acting on answers I couldn't get my brain to reconcile. Couldn't I see the solution?
My child's DNA needed a temporary daily boost to their system. BUT read this. I did not understand this looking at a talented, smart, and athletic child. I did not know what to ask. I did not know what to pray. I did not know anything except thinking, 'they will grow out of this.' It turns out they weren't going to outgrow what their DNA had on locked. They had a better chance of remembering their locker combo in middle school with 30 seconds to go until the bell stopped ringing.
Looking back, I wish there was a tool helping parents like myself understand what my child was experiencing every minute of every day. They were so little they couldn't explain it. I couldn't understand it. So, shameless plug, I created the tool I needed, and you do too.
Imagine the heartache saved if I had a tool like Albert the Fox Stories that helps children talk about anxiety through a story. Maybe I would've acted sooner. Perhaps I would've sought different counselors, or perhaps I would've listened to the advisor who said (when my child was 10) that a temporary medication to help the mind and body focus on the issue instead of masking anxiety.
For many Christian parents like me, medication was a no way, no how, and it's going to turn my kid into an extra on The Walking Dead. I keep returning to how dumb I am for believing that the God of creation, who formed my child, also made way to mend their broken mind. Isn't that the beauty of the gospel? Restore and make new?
Today my child does not need a daily DNA boost. If only I had known how this plays out when they were ten. I think about that from time to time.
I'm not recommending anything more than opening up your thoughts to this thought. Luke was a doctor. He walked with Jesus, who didn't need him. But, Maybe Mark or Matthew did?
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