Last week my family and I had the privilege of speaking, teaching, and serving at Delanco Camp in New Jersey. My husband was the speaker for the week and I taught two classes: one on communication skills, the other on anxiety. My 2 year old soaked up the attention, the high-fives, and the extra treats from the “big kids.”
While I have done a lot of teaching on anxiety to students of all ages over the years, this time really made me reflect. I KNOW teens are anxious- I work with them in therapy all the time, but I noticed some very interesting patterns. I had each student (camper) anonymously write down 3 of their worries and I collected the lists. Without talking with each other, here were the top 2 worries:
1) Losing their parents, & 2) A school intruder
I have so much to say about this. But, in the spirit of brevity, here’s what this tells me: they love their parents more than they know how to express and can’t imagine life without them. And, they feel vulnerable and powerless to deal with the scary, changing world around them.
While I can talk about anti-anxiety strategies backwards with my eyes closed, I also needed to remind them (and myself) while there is a lot we cannot control (outside of ourselves), we can anchor ourselves in something greater. Hebrews 6 tells us, “..we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”
In the nautical world, an anchor keeps the boat in its intended place so that it does not drift away. How do you stay anchored? In what do you place your hope?