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Inspirational Article
From
Joanne Lowe
Index of Writings by Joanne Lowe on Gospel Web
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Inspirational Article
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When I did something wrong as a child, my Mother would say to me “Wait unto your Father gets home”. She said that to me every time I did anything wrong. I was really frightened of my Dad because of what she said to me. I didn’t want him to come home and when he did come home I didn’t want to be in the same room with him because I was afraid of what he was going to do to me.
Parents don’t realize the harm they do to children when they say these things to them. I don’t think they do it on purpose; at least some of them don’t do it on purpose. When I became an adult, I was scared of God because He is so powerful and I just knew that if I did anything wrong, He would do something terrible to me. I found out that God is Love, and that I didn’t have to be afraid of Him, that no matter how many times I hurt Him, He would still love me.
The price that we pay for being frightened of our Dad as children is that we don’t believe that God loves us when we are disobedient to Him. We are scared when we do something wrong that He is going to be so angry at us that He stops loving us. I have lost track of the emails that I have received over the past two years from people who told me “I don’t think God could ever love me because of the terrible things I did”.
This is a direct result of parents not reassuring their children they are loved even when they have to be punished. God always tells us that He loves us when He corrects us. All we have to do to be reassured of His eternal and unconditional love for us is open our Bibles and read it. The Bible tells us over and over that God loves us so much that He gave His only Son to die for us. There is no greater love than the love of God and Jesus for us. When Jesus died on the cross and endured an agony and horror beyond our comprehension, He proved to us how much He loves us.
When God corrects us, it is for our own good. Several years ago, I was living in and taking care of four children in Texas. The mother would lie on the couch to take a nap and she would make her children, one girl and three boys, sit on chairs beside her and if they made a sound or moved and disturbed her, she would take her belt and whip them. The children were scared of their mother. In this example, this mother was thinking only of herself. God only thinks of us when He corrects us and He does it from His heart which is filled with love for us.
I have received a few emails from people who tell me that they are still frightened of the dark even as an adult. I also was frightened of the dark for several years when I became an adult because when I was a child my Dad would say to me “Who knows, the shadow knows”. He would say it in a deep and scary voice. I know that he was just teasing me and not trying to frighten me but I was really scared. It took Jesus many years to get me over that fear. I had to have a light on in my bedroom when I went to bed or I couldn’t go to sleep.
I believe that ninety percent of the things that children see on television are filled with violence. Is it any wonder that children grow up frightened? Is it any wonder that they grow up and kill and hurt people? Perhaps, if some of the people who are on death row and waiting to be executed had been brought up in an atmosphere of unconditional love, no matter what they did wrong as little children, they wouldn’t have become murderers and sex offenders. May God forgive us for not filling our children’s hearts with love and understanding!
When I lived in Oklahoma several years ago, a little boy that lived on my street and who was about ten years old once told me “I’m afraid that my parents are going to get a divorce because they are always yelling at each other”. I asked him why he thought they would get a divorce just because they got upset and yelled at one another. He said “Because I saw it happen on five shows I watched on TV where the kid’s parents were always fighting and yelling and I’m afraid that my parents are going to get so mad at each other that they won’t want to live together any more and they will get a divorce”.
Many years ago when I worked in nursing homes something heartbreaking and terrible happened. I was working the evening shift on Halloween. It was about eight o’clock at night when I heard a terrifying scream. A teenager was dressed up like a vampire. He was standing at the window and screaming loudly and it sounded very frightening. The patient got so upset and frightened that she had a heart attack. Thank God she didn’t die but the nurse had to do CPR on her. Why was this child dressed like that and standing at the window? It is because his parents didn’t see anything wrong with dressing to frighten someone and they allowed him to do it.
We, as parents, have the responsibility and obligation to teach our children that God loves them no matter what they do. We will never be able to convince our children of the love that God has for them unless they believe that we love them when they do something wrong. We must reassure them of our love when we correct them. Children know if we are sincere or not.
Let’s make a special effort to love our children with unconditional love the way that God loves us. If we want our children to grow up loving God and serving Him, they must first see us loving God and serving Him. What do your children see in your life? Do they see love and joy on your face or do they see anger and frowns on your face? Do they know that you love Jesus? What things are you doing to prove to your children you love Jesus? Above all, what are you doing to prove to Jesus that you love Him?