Fear

Click to download as a PDF

Fear Definition

Two Dictionary definitions of ‘fear’ are:

To be afraid or frightened of. To be uneasy or apprehensive about something.

What are you fearful about?

We all have fears. No matter how small it seems to other people, fears are very real to us. What puts you in fear? Just reflect on that for a moment and we’ll come back to that later..

Personal Story (use a story of fear, the time when you were most afraid) 

One of my greatest fears when I was young was being left on my own. I remember sleeping in my grandpa’s house which was quite a big place. If I couldn’t hear people down below, I worried that they had gone and left me. This was also true when I was out shopping – I would sometimes worry that I would be left on my own. 

Life is full of fear. The trick is to confront your fear, by feeling fear but doing something anyway!

Video Clip

One safe clip is from Flushed Away at the start of Chapter 3, when the toilet is flushed and Roddy is scared as he can’t swim.

Later in the movie (Chapter 14. Timings: 1.02.20 or 1.03.57 to 1.04.40), Roddy asks Sid to flush him back down the toilet to go and save Rita and the whole of Ratropolis.

Phobias

(Guessing game. Get people to the front or call out for answers, depending on your ‘audience’ !)

We’ll give you some words and you have to guess what they mean:

Arachnephobia or Arachnophobia – Fear of spiders.

Claustrophobia – Fear of confined spaces.

Cyclophobia – Fear of bicycles.

Arachibutyrophobia – Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.

Didaskaleinophobia – Fear of going to school.

Ephebiphobia – Fear of teenagers.

Ichthyophobia – Fear of fish.

Lachanophobia – Fear of vegetables.

Levophobia – Fear of things to the left side of the body

Methyphobia – Fear of alcohol.

Phobophobia – Fear of phobias.

Soceraphobia – Fear of parents-in-law.

Sophophobia – Fear of learning.

Vestiphobia – Fear of clothing.

Xanthophobia – Fear of the colour yellow or the word yellow.

What Can Help

Take small steps. We walk by picking up our foot and putting it forward and then down.

Re-focus your mind away from negative thoughts. The Bible says that as a man thinks, so is he. So think on good, positive, uplifting, cool, exciting things.

The Bible says, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

(Philippians 4.8, The Bible)

Believe in yourself and surround yourself with people, friends, family, staff, youth workers who believe in you and will support you. God believes in you, so do we. We should be one big family in a school so look out for each other.

Confront your fears. Your fear won’t go away so you have to face it. Someone has said that when a lion roars, it’s the female lion. The prey runs away – right into the arms of the male lion. So if the lion (fear) ‘roars’ then the best thing is to run towards it! 

Try new things, learn new skills. Pushing yourself means that you are able to cope with more. 

It is OK to fail. We get knocked down, but we get back up again. (As in the song, ‘Tubthumping’ by Chumbawamba) 

Learning and life takes effort, time and practice. The best and most successful people are simply those who keep going. “Keep on keeping on”.

What does the Bible say? What does Jesus say? 

The Bible says ‘do not fear’ 365 times – that’s one for every day of the year. In a leap year, you can hear what Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me (Jesus).” 

The Bible is not an irrelevant book. It has great things to say about everything that is going on in your life. Think about those fears that you have and maybe talk to God, ask him to show himself to you and to take away your fears. He longs to set you free.

As Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”

(Isaiah 61.1 / Luke 4.18, The Bible)