Night Terrors And Other Fears

1 John 4:18 – There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

One of the children of the congregation used to have night terrors – dreams that would awake them drenched in sweat and shuddering in fear, yet unable to remember what silent terror stalked their unconscious in the darkness of the night. Maybe the unknown terrors cause more fear than those known and therefore able to be dealt with or at least acknowledged.

Ron Hines, probably still best known for "Sonny's Dream", has produced an excellent series of songs for children we often use in our church program, though they would lay little claim to being religious. One we use for the Halloween season is called Nothing to Fear and we reinforce the chorus to remind the children that "perfect love casts out fear".'

Nothing to fear, no monsters here.
Don't have a problem with ghosts or with goblins.
Nothing under my bed.
It's all in my head.
And Mom's just downstairs
and there's no monsters here.
Dad's just down the hall.
There's no monsters at all.

Prayer: Faithful friend, free us from the fears that follow us through the nights and through the days until we rest in you in perfect peace. Amen.

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