Emotional Preparedness Adventures

Yesterday was a, “forget the school work and embrace one of the last warm days we may have for a long time,” kind of day.  We ended up going exploring at Indian Mound after lunch, and in so doing I received an answer I have been praying for.  I believe in the urgent need for preparedness.  The recent terror attacks in Lebanon on Thursday and Paris on Friday illustrate why.  Our word has changed.  Ignorance is no longer bliss…it is dangerous.  Hiding from reality with our head in the sand will not help.  Only preparation will bring peace.

In our efforts to prepare we have been trying to focus on spiritual and emotional preparedness as well as temporal preparedness.  The challenge I have found is that it is much easier to buy a case of water bottles and wool socks than it is to know how to prepare myself and my children emotionally for what the years ahead will bring.  That has been the heart of my heavenly request.  I want to do it, I just don’t know how.  What does it look like? 

Lately it has been driving me crazy at home to have my kids start bickering about whose feet are where and what an inconvenience it is to have the chair pushed toward them when they are doing their schoolwork at the table.  Really?!?  I have been trying to parent it with grace but feel like I’m getting nowhere.  Then yesterday the same kids that had been enemies because of a chair in the morning were working together to rig a climbing harness, sharing supplies to cut off extra branches on walking sticks, exploring a gorge together, and taking turns helping little brother be safe.  They stretched themselves together doing things they had never done before.  One moment was particularly poignant for me as Bryce went back across a big log that spanned the rushing river to take Brooke’s hand and guide her across.  She was afraid, but she didn’t give up because she had his support.  When she made it back across later she literally bounced up and down and told me, “Mom, I faced my fear and did it!” 

In that moment realized that was my answer.  That’s a part of what emotional preparedness looks like!  Developing the confidence that we can face our fears and doing hard things outside of our comfort zone are key aspects of emotional development.  So is going back with compassion to help another person who is afraid to walk a path that may not have been difficult for us.  So is slowing our pace to keep someone else safe. I had been trying to escape our school lessons by having an outing, but in actuality I had facilitated some life lessons that were of far more importance than finishing a paper or conjugating Latin verbs.

Because of that experience, emotional preparedness was in the forefront of my mind.  Last night when I learned of the terror attacks going on in Paris I realized that talking about it with our children is part of emotional preparedness as well.  In the past I may have tried to shield them from the death and terror and darkness going on in the world, but I don’t believe emotional preparedness can take place that way.  The experiences earlier had empowered me to be intentional about it.  I called them together and we read the news reports together and talked about it.  Those are heavy issues to grapple with for kids in their early teens, but, on the other hand, this is also the world that they live in.  It’s not going away any time soon, and it is my duty to help prepare them for being a part of the force for good and light amidst the atrocity and darkness.  I wish now we would have prayed for the people and leaders of Paris in that moment, but I didn’t think of that until later.  Fortunately, and unfortunately, I’m sure more opportunities will present themselves in the near future to pray for brothers and sisters throughout the world who are facing great affliction.  I am developing along with them and my own emotional and spiritual preparedness is growing drop by drop, line upon line.  I know I have so much more for the Lord to teach me about how to prepare in these ways, but I wanted to thank Him for my answer and share the lesson with others who I know are working on the same issues we are.