Paper People Gone With The Wind

Mark 4:16-17 ‘And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and have no root in themselves and so endure for a time:  afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.’

This particular hub is the result of a recent conversation I had with one of my daughters.  She is in high school now and her eyes are opening every day to new revelations about friendships and the truth when it comes to interacting with other people.  Friends whom she has known for years are beginning to emerge as something she would have formerly never imagined they would be.  Their fruit is beginning to show.

Matthew 13:26 ‘But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.’

As Christians, we have to be slow to judgment both good and bad.  It takes time to see where a person’s heart really is.  Are they really our friend?  Are they really our brethren?

Proverbs 17:17 ‘A friend loveth at all time, and a brother is born for adversity.’

Having recently lost a dear cousin and fellow teen to suicide, my daughter is learning not only how deep her own roots run, but just how deep those of her friends around her are. Some apparently are not very deep.

My daughter has days when the sorrow is overwhelming and she needs to cry, to pray, and be reassured that all is not lost and hopeless. The amazing part to me has been her awareness and her empathy for others while going through these stages of healing. She told me that she is very careful about what she says and to whom she says it because if someone else is having a great day, she doesn’t want them brought down by her. I applaud her concern for others as if they were herself.

What apparently irked her most in this matter however, has been how some friends who did not know this cousin nearly as well as she did, but were familiar with him, don’t hesitate to pour out all this grief from time to time, for what she can only perceive to be a desperate cry for personal attention, and not really for loss.

Knowing the situation, I have to agree with her.

Colossians 2:4-7 ‘And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in the Messiyah. As ye have therefore received Yahshua the Messiyah and Lord, so walk ye in Him; rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.’

What can I tell my daughter?

Well, I can start with that which she has already been taught all her life. My daughter was home schooled. She is now a freshman in high school – a freshman that has deep spiritual roots – a training in faith in the Lord.

Proverbs 22:6 ‘Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’

What my daughter is learning now about the world is that many of her friends, even ones she has known for years, have no root in themselves. They are not deep or spiritual but simply comprised of base paper. They are blown to and fro by their various emotions and undulating conditions. They flinch, snivel and flee at every imposing hitch that roars on their road.

When I read and hear about all the problems people have with their teens, the rebellion, the drugs, and the sex; what I really hear are parents who don’t know who their children are because they did not raise them. Yes, they paid for everything and saw them a little bit after school each night, and even went on occasional vacations with them – but they don’t know them – and they sure as fire didn’t teach them and train them. They left education to the world and still they wonder why all the negative influences driving the world to ruin and chaos are a part of their children’s makeup. What else could the world teach them but sin and iniquity?

John 15:19 ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.’

In my humble opinion, when parents send their kids to school at an early age, at an age when they are still nothing but seeds having no root yet established in themselves, they are letting the world decide where the roots will take hold. Kids become worldly and carnal because their roots have nowhere to go but to the world. And what is the world?

John 15:18 ‘If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.’

The world is hate. There is nothing to debate in that statement. The world hates Yahshua, it hates the Messiyah, it hates the Only begotten Son of the Creator. The world is not going to help your children find Him or His truth.

Matthew 7:26-27 ‘And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.’

Children without spiritual roots grow up to be adults/parents without spiritual roots. Every problem in life becomes an event, a molehill becomes a mountain, and a cat becomes a lion. Yes, these people may become very successful in life because that was what they were groomed to do. Everyone who is worldly will sigh and applaud the outward man and take pride in his or her accomplishments. But inside, in the place where people have to live with themselves, the spirit is shifting sand, the roots finding no living water. These people are spiritual deserts which constantly hunger, constantly yearn while burning to cinders everything it receives. Not content with anything in their live, they require counselors and psychological advisors, medications and treatment for a host of addictions and vices they have embraced along the way to prosperity. Adultery and fornication have always been justified as universal affairs of the heart. Drunkenness was youthful indulgence that became like breathing. Anger and hate transformed into persistent waves battering their hearts and steering their minds. Adrift and alone inside their minds, they fear falling overboard into the hands of the invisible Creator. They just want someone to tell them that there really isn’t a war going on inside them – that it is just their imagination – “God” is not real.

Galatians 5:17 ‘For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.’

In reality, the world teaches children to sin. The world teaches them to excuse sin and try it – experiment with it and see if it is right for you. It does this by declaring that there is no sin and no Creator and no one to obey except the few rules they have at school. The world is even bold enough to say, “Don’t take your parents word for it. Don’t take the Bible’s word for it. And for heaven’s sake please, don’t take your own conscience’s word for it. Don’t listen to that imaginary Spirit in you.”

1 Corinthians 6:19 ‘What? Know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which ye have of the Creator, and ye are not your own?’

It is war out there. We cannot sacrifice our children on the altars that are in their temples simply to maintain an appearance of peace with them. The carnal world is the enemy of our children, as it is our enemy, as it was Yahshua’s enemy. Before we send them out alone in the world, it is our duty and responsibility to root them in their Creator. It is our obligation to teach and impress upon them that they are not their own and that their body is a Holy Temple, a reservoir for the Holy Spirit. This is not your pastor’s job, nor is it the schools job.

This training will not stop them from being tempted, and it will not stop them from making mistakes in life, but what it will do, is give them roots that don’t let them die or fall every time a branch breaks off or a strong wind blows. They will get back up again if they fall. No matter what hardship shake them, their countenance will not change. Countenance is an important feature in the human makeup.

Genesis 4:5-7 ‘But unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell. And Yahweh said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.’

For those who have read my hub on ‘superfecundation,’ I believe Cain was not Adam’s son and not raised correctly in the Lord. He was a paper person. He burned easy, got mad quickly, and was hurt swiftly. He was an emotional mess that did not want to be chastised by the Father in heaven, because he did not recognize Him as Father.

Hebrews 12:7-8 ‘If ye endure chastening, the Creator dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.’

Far too many parents wait until their children are too old to be corrected, to try and correct them. This makes for great tv apparently.

These parents are insecure and ill-rooted themselves, so they fear not being loved by their own children and learn to overcompensate in their relationship with them. Their children run roughshod and wild over them.

Children leave the home and enter worldly schools and learn worldly ways of prosperity and iniquity. They don’t recognize their birth parents after a while because these people didn’t really teach them anything – the world did – and only the world can chastise them now. Up until they are eighteen, the world does nothing to correct them. It appeases their coveting desires and hurtful lusts. It lets them be angry and emotional and foolish. Like paper, these kids and teenagers are blown around every day by the smallest breeze. I’m bored, I’m sad, and I’m lonely. My life sucks.

Hebrews 12:11 ‘Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.’

Boredom, sadness and loneliness will drive teens into the waiting arms of seduction and addiction.

I want my daughters to be resilient in the face of these temptations. I want them to realize that most of their friends probably never will be. Most of them will be weak and aspire to experience these dangerous sinful behaviors. There are enough ‘girls gone wild’ videos out there to prove this.

We kept our children at home to chasten them. They were instructed and taught the Scriptures and how to apply them to their lives – not just memorize verses so they can sound like they got some religion. I don’t pretend that they are perfect but I do know they have root – deep spiritual roots. The tree that grows from this will be sound and strong. They have faith in their Creator, in the resurrection, and in the justice to come.

2 Peter 1:5-7 ‘And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.’

It takes time to grow a child and too many parents seem to go into childrearing without realizing the awesome responsibility they are assuming from the Creator. If they went into sex and reproduction with such disrespect for accountability, is it any wonder their children do also?

Newsflash: Condoms are not the answer to anything – just the justification of sinful behavior. Sin comes with repercussions. A condom does not cover the spiritual conduct or the damage done on that level. Of course, you have to first believe that level exists to worry about damaging it.

The world tells you that there is no spiritual world and no spiritual sin, so use a condom.

1 Corinthians 2:14 ‘But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of the Creator: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.’

The governments of the world try to claim ownership of your children. It doesn’t matter where you are born. There is always some form of man-management trying to tell you what is right and what is wrong in the name of an imagined peace and order. Government makes you, as Christians believe that the financial wellbeing of your family is paramount to everything else in life. This is how they get both parents working and sending kids off to school as and daycares as quickly as possible. Remember, the world is rooted in the love of money.

The world sets judges in place who look at your competency to be a parent. More and more the world wants to make religious people seem like ‘crazy’ zealots without a firm hold on reality. The world labels us. The judgment states that the more faithful we behave, the more irresponsible we are. (Remember, our faith is in the unseen, and they think that is foolish)

All around the world and throughout history, whether by religion or condition, children have been reared in the bleakest and darkest of circumstances and survived – and many of these same children helped build the world we know today. The only ones who ever tried to lay claim on other people’s children have always been oppressors. Western civilization has civilized oppression by legalizing the theft of children from their parents. When someone with authority tells you that you must send your kids to school and provide certain levels of appropriate care for them that are in accord with current standards of care – what they really are saying is, “We are a faithless nation that puts no trust in an imaginary Creator. We have to legislate how parents take care of kids. We are civilized and you apparently are not.”

It was by acts of law that certain human beings were deemed inferior and condemned to be slaves. It is by acts of law that civilized Christians took children away from Native Americans and educated them in white schools – taking away all their religious beliefs.

If you don’t trust the government with how they conduct business, war, money, healthcare, employment and taxes – why in the world do you think they have the best interest of your child at heart?

Another newsflash – government is an entity that has no heart. It is merely the sum of people compensated to be members of it and it is only as good as the administrative forces governing protocol and responsibilities. Have you been down to a welfare office or a bureau of childcare lately to see just how enthusiastic and organized they are? I didn’t think so. Amazing how easy it is to accept on faith the competency of some government offices when they are branches that don’t affect us directly. Obviously, many who have never dealt with it think welfare and childcare welfare are doing an admirable job.

It is only the parts of government that affect the working class and wealthy citizens that make headlines and where changes supposedly need to be made. Paper thin reasoning if you ask me.

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 ‘And for this cause the Creator shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they might all be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (injustice).’

No government ever works. The school systems are there to instill and uphold the delusion, the lie that it does work.

Is it any wonder so many kids are crying out for attention? Is it any wonder there is so much coveting and lusting leading people into destructive and suicidal behaviors? They are learning to take pleasure in injustice, in sin.

Paper thin people are raising more paper thin people. Everything has become superficial and transparent including faith and emotion. Copies of copies of copies become less resilient, less colorful, and less rich. They have no root, nothing to ground themselves too. Faith, virtue, knowledge of the Creator, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity are only words written on them; and each word is easily erased by the flippant hand of trouble and tribulation.

1 John 3:18 ‘My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.’

What do I tell my daughter?

The truth is, I don’t have much left to tell her. I have been teaching her and grounding her for all these years in what I believe. I have released her into the world because it was time for her to stand on her own and weather some storms. My wife and I did our job. We prepared her to handle this – and she will. I have faith she will. After all, she’s not made of paper. She’s a temple and she knows it.

1 Peter 1:13-16 ‘Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of the Messiyah Yahshua; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy.’

Amen