Tali has recently developed a few “unreasonable” fears – fears of certain nighttime shadows in her room, going downstairs alone, and the like. So one day, in an attempt to help her out with this, I asked her, “What command do you think God gave people the most times in the Bible? Do you think it was ‘Obey your mother and father’?” “Yes!” was her good-girl reply. She was surprised when I told her it wasn’t that. I went through a few more commands – love the Lord with all your heart? Love your neighbor as yourself? Do not steal?… She was surprised to hear that the most frequent command in the Bible is “Fear not!” We talked a little more about how she can not be afraid of things like shadows or darkness. Since then I don’t she’s mentioned those scary things at all.

The next day a 7-year-old friend of Tali’s was visiting. While Tali had no trouble asking me for and gobbling a snack, her friend (named “C”) said she wasn’t hungry. I offered our visitor several snack options but she confidently declined each. After a while the two girls were busy playing and I overheard a conversation about God’s commands. “Which command do you think God said the most?” Tali asked her uninformed pal. She took the dear girl through the whole line  questioning that I’d put Tali through until she got to the point – “You don’t need to be afraid to ask my mom for a snack!” Soon after their little talk Tali came to me and told me what had happened, then she explained, “‘C’ was too scared to ask for a snack, but now she wants to know if you’ll make her a sandwich.” Which I gladly did. Sweet, sweet girl!