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This was a big week for my 6 year old, Lily. A big milestone happened for her this week. I had this whole thing written up about it, but when I told her she got upset and said that she wanted to tell people at church herself. She decided it was okay for me to write about as long as I didn’t specifically mention what this thing was that happened.  

However, she would love for you to ask her about it on Sunday.

This thing has been a long time coming. We were talking months at this point. She had clearly been very nervous about it, even anxious at times. Jill and I told her Monday morning that if the thing happened this week she could choose something fun to do with the whole family. She wanted to go putt putt or go to the movies to see “Inside Out 2.”

She would occasionally ask me questions like, “Will it hurt when it happens?” “Will there be any blood?” “How does it even happen?” It was weighing on her, you could see the worry, fear, and anxiety building up inside of her. I didn’t want her to be scared, but I also didn’t want to set her up for unrealistic expectations. All I could really tell her was it was going to be okay.

Doesn’t that just make you upset when you clearly have all this worry and anxiety around something and all someone calmly tells you is that it is going to be okay?  

Back to Monday, Jill goes out to run some errands that afternoon and Lily starts to get really upset about it. There had been some progression and she was very nervous, anxious and worried. She got all worked up and all she could do was ask in a panic to call her mommy. Guess what mommy said, “It’s going to be okay.” 

Before Jill got home, the thing happened. As soon as it did Lily couldn’t help but start to giggle a little bit. The sense of relief she felt was incredibly palpable. This big scary weight that had been keeping her down for so long was being lifted off her shoulders right in front of me. It was a little surreal.  

Later that evening we were at the movie theater to watch “Inside Out 2.” I’ll summarize the plot for those that are not familiar with the premise. It is a story of a young girl named Riley. She has these 5 basic emotions inside of her, Joy, Fear, Sadness, Anger, and Disgust who essintially control all of her decisions and who made up the main characters for the first movie. In the second movie we are introduced to 3 new emotions, most notably Anxiety. Without giving too much away, Anxiety ends up taking over Riley until she finds herself in an anxiety attack. I won’t tell you how it is resolved, but at the moment it is resolved you see that same sense of relief in Riley that I saw in Lily earlier that day. It was as if she was finally able to tell herself it’s okay.

You know, I find myself in these situations more often than I’d like where God is telling me it is going to be okay, but I just don’t believe Him. I don’t know why. I’ve felt that same overwhelming sense of relief more times than I can count. It ultimately has always been okay. It hasn’t always been okay the way I wanted it to be okay, or at the time I wanted it to be okay. But it has always been okay.

I imagine Noah felt this way when the rains came and then again when the water receded. Moses probably could’ve related when the Egyptians were chasing him and the Red Sea actually parted. Mary, Martha and the disciples probably felt it when they saw Jesus had risen 3 days later. We could go on and on.  

If you don’t need to hear this now, I imagine you either know someone who does or you will need it before too long. Matthew 6:34 says “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

It’s going to be okay. That relief that was so palpable and made Lily giggle, it’s coming. Jesus is bigger than whatever sickness, relationship struggle, financial strain, car problem, interview, tension you are dealing with, have dealt with or will deal with in the future. Believe Him when He tells you it’s going to be okay.  

If you are burdened and need prayer warriors to come alongside you through this time we would love to do that for you. You can reach out to us here and/or come to our prayer time Sunday morning under the cross at 10:25am.