Article May 30, 2016 Issue

Don’t take the bait!

Susan Tish

Away at college in his freshman year, our son called in distress. He seemed overworked, stressed, and generally unhappy. It was a sharp contrast to the son we’d left at school a few months before—happy, easygoing, and always surrounded by friends. As a parent, it can be hard not to feel worried when you get a call like this when your child is far from home. Of course, I listened and shared words of encouragement. When I later recounted the phone call to my husband, his response was definitive: “Don’t take the bait!”

I knew my husband wasn’t trying to be uncaring or stoic, and I caught the spirit of what he was saying. He was telling me not to buy into the idea that the depressing picture our son was describing was in fact the true reality. We didn’t have to get wrapped up in anxiety or drama, but we could stay spiritually poised and therefore be more helpful to our son.

In many places throughout the Bible we see individuals presented with “bait.”