This is my first post!

Children are the most interesting teachers. I think this is partly because they do it in such a natural, effortless and sometimes funny way. They don’t exactly set out to teach you, it just happens. I’ve learnt a lot of lessons in the course of parenting, and the most recent one happened this past week. During the week, I was telling my older son the Bible story of David and Goliath. My son’s name is David by the way, and he’s three and a bit. Anyway, while telling him the story, using my best scary voice in my impersonation of Goliath, we got interrupted by something urgent, and I ended up not completing the story.

Now, I had stopped at the part where the giant Goliath was threatening the Israelites, mocking them and all. And well, everybody was scared of him. I guess in retrospect, this was not a good place to stop, but then, stuff happens, and I forgot all about it… until a couple of days later. David (that’s my son, not the one that fought Goliath :-)) woke up in the middle of the night and came to my bed (and he rarely ever does that), and said “I’m scared of the giant”. I wondered what he meant and I was not sure what he was referring to, so I did not immediately know what to say, until it later clicked! It was the giant in the story of David and Goliath! Well, we know how the story ends… David defeated the giant fair and square (Or maybe not exactly fair, he did have God on his side after all). But, we had not gotten to that point, and he was scared. This was not the first time I was telling him the story though, but he probably didn’t remember this at the time.

It then occurred to me that this is how life is a lot of times. We are in the middle of a story, and things can look quite challenging and difficult, but at the time, we don’t see/know that we defeat the giant at the end of the story, and so we are scared and worried. We stay up at night thinking about the big scary giant, and we spend our days worrying endlessly. But, God knows the end from the beginning, and He has told us that everyone that is born of God overcomes the world! (Isaiah 46:10, 1 John 5:4). The interesting thing is, just like my son had heard the story before, but probably did not remember it, we most likely already know this. Sadly though, our knowledge of this is sometimes drowned in the past, buried by our worries of the present evil. But, no matter how bad things look in the world today, try to remember God’s promises and cheer up, because at the end of the story, with God on your side, you defeat the giant of evil! We need to constantly remind ourselves of this until it sinks in deep and cannot be pulled out by any circumstance we face. With all the evil and heart breaking news that surrounds us, this can be quite a comfort, knowing that the end of the story is a good one, that good triumphs over evil, and in a fantastic way to boot.

…And yes, I finally finished telling him the great end to the story, where David is the hero, and is celebrated by the Israelites in a big way. I acted this part out live, carrying him on my shoulders and jumping up and down, and it brought a huge smile to his face, and that, I think, was the end of the fear of the scary giant!

On a side note, I was quite convincing as a giant impersonator, so I’m probably a better actress than I think I am…maybe I should audition for the next Hollywood blockbuster, get a major role, win an Oscar…Okay okay, maybe that’s stretching things a little bit (okay, maybe more than just a little bit). I guess I’ll stick to my audience of two young ones for now, they’ll love me no matter how bad my acting is :-).

Photo Credit: http://theswordbearer.org/