How to Share Scripture about Worry with Your Child

When your child is struggling with fear or worry, it’s tough on the parents, too. You may find that it’s tempting to dismiss their fears or brush away what’s bothering them. Alternatively, your heart may also be heavy with what bothers them, but you don’t want to fuel their worry. In such situations, Scripture about worry can help.

Even if their worries seem simple or trivial to you as an adult, to the child, they are important. It could be a friendship issue, a test or project deadline at school, or even something that seems unlikely to happen, such as a healthy pet dying or a failed birthday party (and their birthday is months away!)

Whether their concerns are serious or trivial, sharing Scripture about worry can help your child recognize the fear and anchor themselves in truth to replace a spiral. Scripture about worry doesn’t keep your child fixated on the fear or possible doom ahead. Instead, it helps provide comfort by pointing them to the truth about who God is and who they are in Christ.

It can also help heal wounds that may be invisible to you but are real emotional or mental hurts your child has experienced in the past.

Also, time can be relative to a child. They may not understand time like adults. You might not think about a pending event until it’s a couple of weeks away. To a child, however, that event looms large whether it’s months or years away. They can also consider circumstances that happened two years ago and not be able to avoid mental or emotional discomfort due to the passing of time like adults can.

Helping them name their feelings and process them through Scripture about worry can also help children form secure attachments with their parents due to the attunement, validation, and connection it builds.

Steps toward understanding

Try to take some steps toward understanding your child’s fear or worry. Help them label it in a child-friendly way. Look for what may have caused them to feel afraid or worried without trying to solve it, judge its relevance, or explain it away. Kids need help identifying what’s causing their concern, even if we might consider the concern unimportant or impossible.

Here are a few steps to keep in mind when you have a child who’s struggling with fear and worry.

Listen to their concerns without trying to solve them or explain them

Knowing you care enough to simply listen without making a decision related to their fear is reassuring to a child. It shows you have compassion and empathy for their concern.

Try not to jump to a specific question or reason for their concern

Instead of asking detailed questions that can upset a child, try to ask a question that is open-ended and shows you are paying attention. Using words like, “Tell me more,” or repeating back what you heard can validate a child’s fears and give them permission to share the details they’re comfortable sharing.

Introduce Scripture about worry by asking your child first

Simply opening up the Bible and pointing to a verse about worry isn’t going to land well with a child. It feels inauthentic and unrelated to their issue. You can, instead, ask something like, “How do you think God feels about this fear?” or “How do you feel Jesus might feel if He were in this same situation?”

These kinds of questions help a child make the leap from problem to problem-bearer. Anytime we use Scripture to help someone with a fear or concern, we want to make sure we do it in a way that leads them to Jesus as their Rescuer.

Building the bridge to Scripture through a question about where God is or how He may feel helps a child see that He cares about their fears and doesn’t judge them or scold them for being afraid or worried.

Ask your child if it’s okay to look up Scripture about worry together

Making sure your child has a voice in the act of finding Scripture about worry is key to their ownership of their faith. Even if your child hasn’t yet professed a fully formed faith on their own, it’s still important to let them say “yes” or “no” to finding solutions in Scripture.

Point your child to Scripture about worry that affirms feelings or is told in a story context

This may require some extra work on your part, but it’s worth it. When you pick a verse that simply discusses worry, there isn’t a “handhold” for the child to grasp.

Instead, spend some time reading a passage where you know worry is mentioned, perhaps it’s the story of lilies and birds in Matthew 6:24-34. It may help your child use their imagination when reading the story. Let your child imagine the birds outside his window worrying over food or the flowers in the backyard struggling under the intense weight of fear.

This can bring comfort to your child that God cares about their fear and doesn’t want them to live under a heavy burden.

Besides reading context and sharing Scripture about worry from a Bible story, you can share your own experience

One of the most helpful tools a parent has is her or her own lived experience. You don’t need to be a Bible scholar to share Scripture with your child. If you’ve ever held onto the truth of a verse for your own fear or anxiety, share that with them. Tell about when a verse or passage helped you cope with something that caused you to be afraid.

Whether it’s a childhood story or a story from adulthood, your child doesn’t need all the details. They just need to know there was a problem, a struggle, and a tool to help. You can also share how the Scripture about worry helped.

It’s good for children to see that Scripture doesn’t always help immediately. The more we read God’s Word and meditate on its meaning, the deeper God transforms us by enriching our understanding and our prayer life.

Incorporate prayer into Scripture and story-sharing

Depending on the Lord and praying to Him with and for your child is an example of hope and belief that He can bring change to their lives. It is a powerful demonstration of what you believe. Your child can participate with you or just let you pray over them.

You can even pray some of the words of the verses you’ve looked at and remind your child that Scripture is God’s inspired words written down for many generations. These same words you are reading and praying together are the words that spiritual giants like David and Paul prayed when they were going through difficult circumstances.

Pointing out the Psalms or a letter written by Paul may help illustrate this point. Mostly, just make sure your child knows he or she is loved and accepted  –  fears, worries, and all.

Recognizing and even memorizing Scripture about worry is important, but the most foundational lens a child needs is the love of a parent who will walk with them through any fearful times and support them in their struggle with worry.

Getting help

Scripture is a powerful tool to teach children about as they encounter worry, fears, and trials in their lives. Sometimes, it’s tough to watch your child struggle with worry. It is also possible that your child worries disproportionally to others around their age. It could be that your child has anxiety that would require the diagnosis and intervention of a professional.

If you feel you or your child need more support, consider seeking out a counselor who can walk your family through the journey of worry. Contact our office today to ask about what kinds of therapy groups or certified licensed counselors are available for your child or family.