I’m sitting in the hospital today at my father-in-law’s bedside. He suffered from a burst blood vessel in his brain last week. He was lifting heavy boxes and got an excruciating headache that had him heading to the hospital. Recent CT scans have indicated the blood is receding as expected. But he’s still in a lot of pain.
It’s amazing how fragile life can be. One minute you’re fine and the next you’re in a hospital bed, waiting for blood to drain from your brain. Things like this make it really hard not to freak out and try to live in a plastic bubble, keeping your kids safe from harm.
The truth is, though, there’s no way to account for every possibility. To forsee and change your course, steering clear of disaster. It’s what makes life uncertain.
I calm my own fears this way sometimes. For instance, I’m scared to be home alone in the dark. I start imagining intruders coming in to take my children or hurt my family, without Riley there to protect us. For every bad scenario I imagine, I calm my fears by realizing that, since I don’t have ESP, the likelihood of having a robber hide in the exact location I had imagined and popping out to strangle me us pretty slim. By then I’ve usually calmed myself down.
How do you protect your family then? I say, instead of sheltering, teach. Teach your kids how to cross the street without you, how to blow on hot food, how to take bites instead of cutting their sandwich into tiny cubes. Teach them stranger safety, to run and scream if they feel threatened. Teach them how to live life and love life without being afraid. Teach them to respect life and it’s fragility and to live each day to mean something. Teach them that by example.
Please pray for Joe and a quick recovery! And love your life!
Hoping for a swift and complete recovery, just in time for the holidays.