I've been hoping to sit down and blog for a week or so...so I did last night and totally forgot I had started this one, ha ha. I've had some bloggy thoughts on my mind. I haven't even thought it through but I've known I want to write it down and process it all.
Several times lately I've thought about a particular memory. Somewhere around six or seven years ago my youngest daughter had what was, to this mommy, an incredibly hilarious fear. Now that just sounds cruel, doesn't it? Laughing at your little helpless child. But wait until you hear.
For many small todlers, IF they have a fear, it is something like big dogs. Something that is intimidating by size or behavior. And it doesn't surprise us at all. I know it wouldn't have surprised me. But my girl was fine with dogs. It was something else...entirely unexpected...that she was afraid of.
One day the girls and I were walking from our condo out to the car. Suddenly Alli wasn't walking with us and I turn back to see what the problem was, or what had distracted her. She was frozen in fear because right there in the middle of the sidewalk was...not a dog...not a big ugly bird...not a snake. No, no, no. It was a snail. Yes, you read that right. It was a SNAIL! I tried to reason with her and told her to just step over it; it can't jump. I tried telling her to go around it; it's too slow to catch you. But no. She would not budge. So I walked back past the snail, lifted Allison up and set her back down on the other side of the snail and on she went, happy as a lark.
Needless to say, a couple weeks later when a squirrel blocked her path on the sidewalk, separating her from me, I knew better than to expect coaxing to work, ha ha.
I laugh whenever I share "the snail tale." I chuckle when I just think about it. It's one of those fun, peculiar, little stories we moms like to share about our kids. But it gets me thinking, too. That little tiny snail was in no way a danger to Alli. Even if it had wanted to harm her, the most it could have done was slime her. And we all know there's no way it could have caught her to even try. It was harmless. But it paralyzed her. She was NOT going to face that thing alone! She was afraid and so focused on that little thing that there was no reasoning with her. A snail.
We have snail-like fears, too. There are situations that I face sometimes that give me ridiculous levels of anxiety and I find myself praying fervently that God will give me strength and peace to get through. Then I get in the situation and I see what a harmless, snail-sized situation it is and wonder why on earth I was so incredibly freaked out about it.
I wonder why we do that? Why do we make mountains out of molehills? I don't know. But I'm glad I've got good friends, good family, and a good God to lift me up over those little terrifying snails.
