One of my (Aimee’s) best friends and my God-daughter left last week to head back East for a few weeks to visit with family. My God-daughter, being almost 3-years-old, only partially understood what was about to happen. The night before they left, I sat her down on my lap and I told her that she needed to stay with Mommy and listen to her so that she would stay safe. She said that she would, but I knew that she only partially understood and would quickly forget what I had said. My friend and I just looked at each other and smiled.We’re both aware of the fact that our little one is wild, curious, energetic, and knows no fear. She is completely unaware of the fact that someone could grab her and take her away if she was to wander away. She doesn’t understand that she could be in danger. She only thinks of what’s fun or interesting. What grabs her attention. Sure, she understands not to walk into the street. But that hasn’t kept her from doing it a couple of times when she was distracted. She knows not to jump on the couch, but she learned that one the hard way. Children have to learn to be afraid of things. Fear is learned. It is not instinctual. Survival is instinctual, but that isn’t exactly the same thing.
Talking to her got me thinking about fear. Generally speaking, it’s something that we look at as always negative. Something to be denied. Something to be conquered. We forget that, as children, we had to develop a healthy fear of strangers, of the hot stove, of traffic, etc., in order to stay safe. Healthy fear of something means to respect it’s power; power to affect lives. It keeps us alive. Unhealthy fear is crippling, and at best keeps us stagnate. It may allow for survival, but not life.
It’s important for us to understand this and remember this because the Bible tells us that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10; 10:27; 15:33; Job 28:28; to name just a few examples).
Fear of the Lord is something that a lot of people don’t understand because they only see the negative side of fear and forget that it has a positive and helpful side. We should fear the Lord, which does not mean to sit cowering in a corner. It means that we should have proper respect for His power and abilities. When we begin to fear the Lord, we begin to understand how great He is. That is why it is the beginning of wisdom. When we begin to understand how great our God is, we begin to understand how much He can do through us. How He has empowered us. How He has given us a mission and the means to complete it.
I want to encourage you to spend some time thinking about what it means to fear the Lord. I recommend reading some of the passages and others in the Bible that talk about the concept. Don’t forget to come back and let us all know what you discovered.
