I hated night time as a kid, and I don’t like it much now. There’s something about the dark that brings all of the scary things out.
Sometimes I couldn’t put a name or face to my fear – it was just there, hanging over me in the dark. I had a hard time turning off my mind at night. I’d start thinking about all the things I was scared of, all the things that were waiting in the shadows of our house, all the bad things that could happen.
Nothing made me feel better. Those scary thoughts would run through my head every night, and it felt beyond my control. I felt powerless and unarmed in the battle for my mind.
My son is starting to experience some of this for the first time in his life. His overactive imagination combined with his sensitive personality are now causing him anxiety at bedtime. He imagines bees are in his closet, or sees a scary character in his head every time he closes his eyes.
He usually gets up about 15 minutes after laying down and starts crying about being scared. We let him have a happy movie on, keep a light on, and he is surrounded with stuffed animals. Usually one or both cats are in his room to keep him company.
But he doesn’t need distractions – he needs 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚.
And I know something now that I didn’t know when I was his age.
I know where to find it.
I explain that we can’t control when bad thoughts come, or when bad dreams happen, or when we feel scared of something. That’s part of being human.
But we can ask Jesus to help us with our thoughts. We can talk to God when we’re scared. We can choose to think about things that are 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲, 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆, 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵𝘆 (Phil. 4:8). We can fight the darkness with 𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 (John 1:5). We can pray for 𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲 that can only come from Him, to guard our hearts and our thoughts (Phil. 4:7).
So we pray for these things. And he sleeps.
Kristen Stewart, Writer 