I was in the discipline of "Child Development" in college for two terms at Oregon State University, just long enough to show me how silly education in the human services industry was. There was never a sense that God should be incorporated into our counseling, only that we should be teaching others to place their trust in themselves. The principles of God were not a part of the training in any form.
I spent enough time arguing with my professors at 18 years old that I could not get a good grade or report from them. It was interesting that they would not encourage us to think for ourselves, we must adopt their thinking to get a grade that would land us a job, and yet their assertions were not based on definitive scientific research, it was all subjective anecdotal observations rather than actual scientific testing. It also had it's roots in the Darwinism that suggested that humans were nothing more than animals reacting to stimuli.
Helping people, in the minds of secular psychologists has more to do with empowering them to seek their own glory, than ever submitting to a God, to Whom they would be accountable.
Even the believers of our day who were raised in public institutions are incensed that they would have to be accountable to anyone. Those who would set rules and boundaries are disdained and maligned at mean spirited.
This was a huge problem in the raising of children. One woman's testimony is a familiar one to many.
The schools were training the children all day long to think of themselves first, ignore what they didn't like and fight for their freedom to be whomever they chose to be.
When they returned home from school and Mother required them to put their coat away, do their homework while limiting their television watching, they became enraged. They could not display openly their rage, (because there would have been punishment) at the authority figure who was "ruining" their "self esteem", so they used covert, rejection and dismissiveness to display their anger.
When Mother attempted to engage them in prayer or Bible reading they appealed to their Father to let them off the hook and so he did. Having been raised in a family that had virtually no rules, as many children in his generation were, to force anyone or require obedience was thought of as over bearing or mean. So a few times like this was enough to show Mother that she could not influence her children in the ways of the Lord by force, she ceased her attempts at spiritual education and gave it all to the Lord.
Mother began to pray that the Lord would save my husband, then one day that happened. Unfortunately by the time he became a Christian it was too late, the children had learned complete rebellion against their Mother, demonstrating their contempt in covert ways, until they became adults when they no longer felt a need to be covert, the ways became blatant, without restraint. The rejection was complete and empowered by other extended family members.
This story could have been written by many Mothers, it is common and devastating to the lives of the children and heartbreaking to the Mothers. We are living in very difficult times, if you are a Mother who has a story just like the one here, you know exactly what all this feels like.
A Mother who has determined to live her life with Christ, one who has no family support or the love of her family, can be strong in spite of all of it, even walking joyfully without the support. Christ is the support of a believing Mother.
Remember too dear ladies, you not only have Christ, but you have other daughters who are not of your own fold. There are spiritual daughters who love you right here on facebook. You cannot hug them in person, nor can you have tea with them in your presence, but you will one day be with them in heaven for the sweetest reunion ever!
When we no longer place our trust in man or families, we are free to be who God made us to be, we are free from the bondage of family tradition and counterfeit relationships based on artificial love.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. who loved me and gave himself for me.
Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—
1 John 4:9-11 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
God Loves and Cares For Us
Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Job 34:19 who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?
Psalm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Psalm 136:26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Romans 5:2-5 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.
Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
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