Fear release your chains

Okay so I have a problem. I know that I have this problem so at least I'm aware of it so I can move past it. But really this problem is, what I believe anyways, genetically passed down (which is also part of the problem). My Great-Granny Grayce had this problem and she passed it to my Grandma Pat who loving gave it to my Mom who then handed it to me, and I'm trying desperately to not chain my girls to it. This problem is FEAR. It's a horrible word that has far too much power. The word it's self has arms and chains that just a mere thought of it, it grabs you and pins you down. This four letter word can easily put a choke hold on you and strangle the life (especially the life we were meant to live) right out of you. I guess I always saw it to some degree acted out in the lives of my family. But please don't get me wrong in thinking that my family doesn't have relationships with God. In fact all these women I've mentioned have also modeled incredible faith (which I guess in and of it's self a paradox). And now looking back their fears were directed at the well being and concern for their family and those they wholeheartedly cared for. It wasn't until I became a mom that I fully realized that I too had this fear problem and the grip it had on my life. I think that any parent could attest to the fact as soon as you see those lines or hear the words, "your pregnant" fear or the possibility of fear sets in. My chains of fear set in the most after what was our second miscarriage. I don't even really know if it was necessarily the miscarriage itself or what about it but I started having panic attacks. They felt like heart attacks and they controlled my life. I hated them. I hated that they controlled me. I hated that they sucked the life from me. I hated that I was couldn't get a grip on reality during them. I hated that they made me feel crazy. I prayed and wanted to badly for a drop of faith, just a mustard seeds worth, and then I hated that I couldn't even have that. It was during this time that God revealed so much to me and through that time I had to come face to face with fear before I could move past it. I know that my fears were irrational and while I'm not going to get into my deep and dreaded fears in anymore length, I was amazed at how God spoke directly to me through so many inaudible ways during that time. Through scripture and the perfectly timed lessons from church and sunday school, as well as from the prayers of my friends and family and from the amazing support and love from my husband I started the forward motion in all this. One quote that I clung to was from a book called The Shack (fantastic book that I recommend if you haven't read it). So in this quote the main character, Mack, is being told this by God, but I pretend that it's God talking directly to me. "You don't know that we love you. The person who lives by their fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those fears into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe that I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it; you talk about it, but you don't know it." Ouch that cut deep to the core and was exactly what I have to remind myself over and over. This quote has hung on my mirror and daily I read it and remind myself that the places and the room in my heart that fear has means that God isn't there. I realized that this was the stronghold that satan was having on my life and refuse to allow him that control. Now that all being said, do I still struggle with fear- yes. Do I hate it still- yes. But I know what it is when it rears it's ugly head and I know where it's coming from and who's behind it. And the reason this whole thought and all came up again was that my precious 4 year old daughter has fears that I hate that she has. She's afraid of getting older and for anybody she loves to get older. She wants us and her little sister to stay exactly how we are forever. Despite us telling her of all the benefits of getting older none as seemed to excite her. (Her daddy has always been a peter pan fan so I blame him :) But really I don't know where this fear comes from. She's afraid of fires, even though we've never had one or had anybody we know affected by one. Where do these fears come from? Is satan already chaining her with a stronghold of fear at this early age? I pray not! I will bathe her in prayers and I will not model for her a life of fear. I want her to not just know or say that God is in control but to believe it with every fiber of her being! I want that for myself!! So for now all I can do is model what I'm claiming I believe to to pray the armor of God onto her until she can pray it onto herself. This is a legacy that I will not pass down and one chain that satan can not use against my family any longer.