I was about six or seven years old when my mother sat me down to have an important talk. She needed to address the difference between rational and irrational fears. Those are the words she used.

You see, I was scared of everything. Remember that duck on Garfield and Friends? His name was Wade, and he was terrified of every single thing. I really related to him. My main fear was of death—namely, being murdered while I slept. I would imagine footsteps coming down the hall or hands wriggling the latched front door.

It’s not like I watched scary movies, and I was actually banned from watching the news because I was convinced that everything that happened on the news would happen to me. Apparently one of the Bernstein Bear movies was too scary for me, and I wouldn’t watch it.

During this serious conversation about what things it was OK to be scared of and which things were most likely never going to happen to me, my mom told me something that reassured me for years to come. She said, “Jenny, if you need to be scared, I will tell you.”

I was convinced that I would know when it was time to be scared because my mom would tell me. That became my logic. I would lie in bed, eyes wide open, listening for any sound, and would say, “I’m scared, but I don’t have to be. My mom hasn’t told me to be scared.”

I just read a book meant for teenagers (which is a little embarrassing since I am 26 years old). It’s called Thinking, Changing, Rearranging. I realized, again, that I still have this problem with irrationality. I don’t so much think that I’m going to die (although sometimes when things get crushing, I still have to think, I’m not going to die, and even if I do, I’m going to heaven and that’s a good thing), but I do operate on a very skewed sense of reality.

The book talked about facts and beliefs. It defines a fact as something that is known to be true, can be proven, and is accepted by almost everyone. A belief is something that is true to some people and not others. It is often a belief about a fact.

These seem like simple things, but, so often, I operate on wrong beliefs about myself or someone else. I forget that God has given me the facts about myself in the Bible. He says that he chose me to be holy and blameless before him before the foundation of the world; he says that his thoughts about me outnumber the grains of sand; he says that I am valuable.

Just because someone else didn’t think that doesn’t mean it’s not true. When I forget who I am (about every 10 minutes or so), my view of the world starts to get skewed and I begin to act in ways that don’t make a lot of sense. I begin to think that my world is falling apart or someone thinks something that they actually don’t.

But then, just like when I was little, I need to learn to look to my Parent. If I start to get anxious, I need to remember what my Father says is true. Then things don’t seem so scary.

You may also be interested in Max Lucado's new book Fearless: Imagine Your Life with No Fear. Check it out!