Making the monsters go away

"Teacher, teacher I want the yellow bean bag!" shouted an excited little one as I was passing out colored bean bags for a favorite dance. "I'm sorry you didn't get the color you wanted, I explained, that's called being disappointed. Sometimes you don't get the color you want but you get what you get and you can't throw a fit." This little lesson, painful as it may be, is one of the ways we teach children how to deal with disappointment.

Preschoolers are just beginning to understand their emotions and a goal of our program is to help children identify and appropriately express a variety of feelings. The month of October and the occasion of trick-or-treat is a good time to talk about being happy, sad, frightened, angry and disappointed.

In addition to learning how to deal with disappointment, children need to learn how to overcome or adequately deal with their fears. (Don't we all!) In the weeks leading up to Halloween we talk a great deal about monsters, bad dreams and scary costumes. We learn that monsters are just pretend and that people can put on a costume and look different even though they're still the same person underneath.

But what about fear? How do you teach young children how to deal with the monsters under their bed or scary dreams? Faith in a God who is always watching over us is a way to reassure children and  adults.

The Gospel of Mark relays this story. (I've taken the liberty to paraphrase in kid-speak.) Jesus and his friends were taking a boat ride. It was a beautiful, sunny day and they were laughing and enjoying the weather. Jesus lay down in the boat and fell asleep. A short while later the winds began to blow (insert 4-year-old wind sounds here) and the waves began to get bigger and bigger (children rock up and down). The friends of Jesus began to get worried. It was becoming more and more difficult to row the boat on the tall waves. Then the rain began to fall and the friends were getting wet. The wind continued to howl and by now the friends were terrified. "Jesus, wake up!" they yelled.  "Help us, help us!" they shouted.

Jesus woke up and looked at his friends. "Why are you frightened? You know that I am right here with you," he said. And then Jesus performed a miracle. He stood up and said to the wind, "Be still!" He looked at the water and said, "Be still!" And the wind stopped blowing and the rain stopped and the sea was as calm as could be.

"Who is this man?" the friends wondered, "even the wind and the rain obey him." Jesus' friends were amazed.

As we plant seeds of faith in the hearts of our little ones we want them to know that God created them, loves them and is always watching over them. Jesus is with us when the storms come and when there are monsters under our bed and when we have bad dreams at night. We are never alone.

This story is not just for children. It's one I turn to when fighting monster-like adult worries.

If you aren't familiar with the "Veggie Tales" check out the song "God is Bigger." This catchy little tune is another great way to teach your child that God is always watching over them. The song is linked here.





Cheryl Hoover is the Director of Northampton Christian Preschool.