My family and I are headed to the beach for a week. There’s such a sense of freedom and peace when I go to the ocean. 

It’s also a dangerous place. Aside from the rip currents and potential for drowning, there’s sharks. The beach we are headed to recently had a shark attack, and that is in the back of my mind as well. And yet, we are still going. 

Being a parent is hard. We have to accept the dangers and risks of the world in order for our children to have a full and complete childhood. 

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”

Few sayings ring so true. Freedom is both the most blissful and, at times, one of the scariest things we can experience.

At 16, getting that driver’s license and finally feeling the freedom of the open road is such an exciting milestone. But suddenly, you’re much more capable of accidentally injuring or killing someone.

The freedom to own a gun carries the same possibility. 

Having a child brings the weight of carrying someone else’s tiny, vulnerable life in your hands, and being fully in charge of what happens to him or her. 

Freedom carries risk. And often, danger. 

Many today might agree that in our modern society we have regularly traded freedom for safety. 

As Eleanor noted, freedom can be a frightening prospect.

Previous generations often comment on what they consider unbelievable safety protocols in place today. The requirement to wear seatbelts. The locked windows at hotels. The boundaries put in place at theme parks and zoos. The in-depth process of airport security. All of these regulations bring us closer to safety and further from freedom. 

And yet, God loves freedom. 

No, I’m not advocating we should lose seatbelts and security standards. Sometimes those things are necessary in life. But I am calling us to reflect on and take note of what we give up when we live our lives with such a focus on safety rather than freedom. 

The intense focus on safety comes from one place – fear. Arguably, a little fear can be good, but a lot of fear can restrict us from truly living.

As a mom, safety and fear tell me to call my daughter back when she climbs the tree a little too high. But freedom tells me she will never know her limits if she doesn’t test them. 

This balance might be the hardest from a parenting perspective. Discerning when to let them test the waters and when to pull them back is not for the faint of heart. 

For those of us that struggle with anxiety and worry, parenting brings that out 100-fold. 

This unease is, in part, because freedom is not black and white. Children need boundaries and restrictions to keep them safe until they are at an age of discernment to determine when a risk is too great. It is our job to determine when they’ve reached an age earning more freedom in certain areas. When we feel they possess enough discernment and wisdom to do more things on their own. 

And yet, we can’t wrap our children in bubble wrap and tuck them away from the world. Without adequate freedom we would raise very dependent, miserable, and insecure children. 

One thing I remind myself of often, is Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

The purpose was freedom.

He knows that with that freedom we could choose the bondage of sin. We could choose destructive habits and find ourselves in terrible situations. He knows we might choose to not choose Him. Yet, He gives us freedom anyway. 

Because He knows that true freedom comes in choosing Him and receiving the gift of eternal life. 

So, what does it mean to be free? 

It means being unburdened by the penalties of sin, the goals and priorities of the world, the entrapments of sin and addictions. 

Freedom does not look like earthy safety. But rather the peace that comes from knowing that no matter what happens to our earthly forms and no matter what challenges or distress we might encounter here on earth, that our souls are safe and that we will spend eternity with Him. 

So, when the temptation comes to focus on earthly goals and safety, be reminded that God called you to real and deep freedom. The kind that brings peace beyond our circumstances. 

And He calls us to model that for our kids. 

Figuring out what boundaries we should set in the parenting journey is still going to be a challenge at times. It’s our role to show them how to be responsible with freedom, to use good judgment and wisdom in our daily choices.

But modeling freedom for our children also looks like trusting God to take care of them when we can’t. 

Give them freedom over fear.

Written by: Anna Wetherington. Anna lives in Georgia with her daughter and husband.