No Anxiety Here

Except When They’re on the Roof, Tending the Grill, or Doing Dangerous Things Carefully

What Makes Me Nervous?

Not Henry in this moment.

Not when he’s lounging in a camping chair—T-shirt, shorts, and bare feet—his head resting on one armrest, knees tucked up, feet gripping the other, tongue outstretched to catch the drips of a melting popsicle like a sunbaked lizard soaking in summer.

That doesn’t make me nervous. That makes me smile. That makes me breathe. That reminds me to be here.

But raising him? Loving him? That makes me nervous.

Lindsey’s dad, Mark, likes to say,
“We know God has a sense of humor, because He tells us in His Word to be anxious for nothing… and then He gives us kids.”
And he’s not wrong.

Children stretch your heart to its absolute limits—then Lucy climbs onto Henry’s shoulders and he takes off running through the living room, and your inner parent starts praying in tongues:
“Dear Lord, not the coffee table!”

There’s a Belgium-based technical director, Kenny Deuss, who captures this feeling perfectly. He takes ordinary snapshots of his kids and Photoshops them into wild, imaginary scenes—dangling off cliffs, riding runaway carts, manning flaming grills. Then he sends the images to his wife with a calm little caption:
“Everything’s under control.”

It’s brilliant. And terrifying.
Like parenting.

I once snapped a real photo of Henry and Lucy standing on top of the roof of our car.
No Photoshop. Just two curioius kids getting a better view of the surrounding area.
I didn’t save it to show how relaxed I am about rules—I saved it because it captured something beautiful:
their confidence, their closeness, their freedom.

And that’s the tension we live in, isn’t it?

I get nervous because I love them.

I’ve heard it said that in order to raise kids who are strong and capable of facing the world,
we must let them do dangerous things carefully.
That’s not easy.
Not for those of us who see both the joy and the hazard in every leap from the couch.

I’ve also heard it said:

Hard times create strong people.
Strong people create soft times.
Soft times create soft people.
Soft people invite hard times…

Where are we in that cycle?

Wherever we are, I want my kids to know that strength doesn’t mean fearlessness.
It means love.
And maybe nervousness isn’t the opposite of faith.
Maybe it’s part of it.
A signal that I’m not in control.
A reminder to pray, to let go, to trust the God who gave me these wild, wonderful humans in the first place.

Even when they’re quiet. (Because that’s when it gets suspicious.)
Even when they’re climbing the car.
Even when they’re lost in the sacred work of play.

May your love be strong enough to let go,
your faith deep enough to quiet fear,
and your days filled with joy that doesn’t need a reason.

parenting #faith #joyinthechaos #lettinggo #trust #familylife #kidsarewild #graceinmotion #summermoments #everythingisfine #prayforthetable