Overcoming Fear

I made these molasses-glazed-ribs again last night.  The Husband, Kidlet Three and I were all licking our fingers at this delicious meal.  It was a great meal to celebrate the end of a great summer and the start of a new school year.

Kidlet Three started 8th grade today.  Eighth grade in a completely new school for him.  He has been in private school from kindergarten until now.  The total enrollment in the K-12 private school was close to 300 students.  Today the school he started in has 900 students in grades 6 through 8. Those numbers are quite overwhelming when you are used to knowing almost everyone in the school!

Last night Kidlet Three was able to verbalize his fears to me.  His biggest fear was that he wouldn't know anyone.  So we started listing the people he would know. As he got close to naming 23 kids he paused and said "wow, I know more people there than I thought I did".  And his countenance changed..a little.

His second fear was dealing with diabetes in this big environment.  Last week I did take him to the school and he practiced walking from his fourth hour class to the office where he would be checking his blood sugar, getting his insulin and then we bee-lined it for the cafeteria to find the fastest path.  We made it to the cafeteria in about 3 minutes but there weren't 899 other people milling around in the hallway!

Waking up this morning, Kidlet Three was full of fear.  Yet he pushed through.  He showered, ate his breakfast and ran out to catch the bus.  He barely posed for the annual First-Day-of-School photo.  All day long I prayed that he would feel God's peace, that he would feel welcomed and that the fear would blow away. 

At 2:40 I called his cell phone.  He was on the bus already, heading home.  When I asked him how school was he said "no problem Mom...I gotta go...riding the bus is so much fun."  There was no fear in his voice.  Tonight as we've visited, the word fear hasn't been mentioned.

Praise God.  I had so many friends and family praying for this boy in these new big adventures.  And God's peace surprised Kidlet Three's understanding.  With God, he definitely overcame fear.  Amazing!