On Generational Trauma and Parenting With Grace

Bible Talk, Church Culture, Essay and Prose, Family Life, , , , , , ,

As healthy parents, we long to intervene in the suffering of our children.  We want them to be well and comfortable.  In infancy, this is good and ensures that their basic needs for food, shelter, and love will be met; however we should begin to allow some autonomy as our children try and assert themselves.  When they begin to walk, we must allow the occasional fall.  On the other hand, we must not be so over-bearing as to engineer circumstances to bring about their suffering, and at any rate it is hardly necessary as every created thing is groaning in pain under the weight of The Fall.

It is our task to provide them with the whole truth while shielding them from evil to the best of our abilities.  It is not our work to prevent their suffering.  Personal suffering to some degree is the very thing that leads one to God at the point of justification, and later at the various points of sanctification.  It is ordained that each and every Christian will suffer at the point of glorification due to the death of the physical body, the actual separation of spirit from flesh.  Though, we may cite an instance when a person is said to have “walked away with God,” this does not mean there was no pain in the metamorphosis that had to take place, and salvation is complete when it has passed through these three stages.  We may be sure the thief on the cross passed through them; albeit in an unusually rapid manner.

Scripture does not allow that we make personal peace and prosperity our goal in life, and as parents we are on occasion unhappy in our own suffering.  We occasionally desire, though it be momentary, to escape our hardship.  We may attempt this in a variety of ways- some seemingly benign and others completely unhealthy.  We may influence our children to attempt their own flight.  Also, in this we may inspire our children, though unwittingly, to go forth and right the wrongs that we’ve suffered within the roles and circumstances that God has designed and allowed  for us.  This we must strive against as suffering is ordained for the Christian.  The Christian by very definition, is the one attempting to navigate this fallen world in a manner that is pleasing to His Father God.  A Christian is one who has recognized his own offenses before God (his sin) and has purposed to live in a fight against further offense.  Therefore, to ignite in our children a desire to escape this difficulty is to inspire our children to abandon God.  May it never be!  

Copyright 2023.    L. L. Shelton.

World Of Undreams

Poetry

How long will I stand

In this world of undreams,

Where only the shadows

Are what they seem?

 

Left brain overwhelmed,

Right mind seeing ‘round,

Let me write or draw or paint,

I must remember thoughts I think.

 

Copyright 2023.     L.L. Shelton.

Armchair Traveler

Poetry

If traveling would make of me

One who’d ever wander,

Harming hearts and failing minds

And tearing things asunder;

 

Thanks be to God who keeps me home,

Allowing me to wonder,

O’re color in the flower’s frame

And rolling of the thunder.

 

Copyright  2023.     L.L. Shelton.

We Rest Our Case

Poetry

For Lemona Elliott & Ladonna Elliott Daniel

In the quiet,

six foot depth,

we gravely laid

your case to rest.

 

Daughter sighed,

mother  wept,

children round

softly crept.

 

By grace alone

you stood your ground,

and in Christ

new freedom found.

 

Away with you,

our faithful plea,

fly to Him

your soul to keep!

 

Until your case

be once more raised;

The Judge shouts, “You-

come forth be saved;”

 

Your shell will linger,

decompose,

over it green

grasses grow.

 

But on That Day,

in That Hour,

be resurrected

by His power;

 

Then running and leaping

and praising God,

o’re soil our feet

this day hath trod.

Copyright 2023.    L.L. Shelton.

My Soul To Keep

Poetry

Allow that I know

My safety is in You alone;

That I am safe because

You keep me safe,

That there is no need

For any other but You.

Do fill me up with You,

Wash me daily in Your Word;

Surround my soul

Within Your Essence,

Keep me safe,

Safe and sound.

Amen.

Copyright 2023.    L.L. Shelton.

On Revival

Bible Talk, Church Culture, Current Events, Spiritual Health, , , , , ,

What is revival in a religious or spiritual sense? First, a revival by this definition is a renewal of something and/or a return to it with new fervor.  What is revival in a Biblical sense? Simply put, it is a renewed and conscious focus on my First Love, coupled with a sincere longing for His Holiness in my life; a desire for my sanctification.  This is a different work than justification; that is my initial coming to Jesus, The Christ, beseeching Him to save me from my sin and become my Lord and Master.  Justification is the saving event that begins my journey as a Christian, literally a little Christ.  Sanctification is the continual process of being saved by my cooperation with The Holy Spirit of God who now indwells me, guiding and directing me in my new life with my Lord, and who has sealed me for the day of the final phase- my glorification.  Yet, in some sense all three phases are continual.  Salvation, like the trinity, is three-in-one.

When the people of God (Christ’s body the church) are functioning appropriately, according to instruction from The Word of God, cooperating with their sanctification- others from outside the body and imposters residing inside the body will be justified. People will be delivered from their sin and spiritually healed.  Prayers of praise and thanksgiving will be plentiful.  There will be a hunger for Scripture and an active interest in and emphasis on its application in our lives.

Revival may occur corporately in the sense that many people are experiencing personal revival together, in other words, a group of people in congregation are having separate personal revival as individuals.  This may be what is now occurring on the campuses of Asbury College, Lee University, and other American institutions of higher education.  As my Granny was fond of saying, “the proof is in the pudding.”  We shall see if this has been the case by the fruit  (See Matthew 13: 18-30).

If you are unable to be a part of a corporate revival event, but are experiencing an intense desire for God to do a new work in your life, pray for personal revival.  I have done it and have experienced it.

The elements of personal revival are simply outlined for us in The Word of God.  Apply them now:

  1. Prayer:  Offered In sincerity and humility, requesting that God make known to me my specific sin or pattern of sin (Ps. 139:23-24).
  2. Confession:  With discretion, of that particular sin or pattern of sin to another Christian or Christians (James 5:16).
  3.  Atonement:  With discernment and in compassion, seek forgiveness of anyone directly offended by me due to that sin or pattern of sin (Matthew  5:23-24).
  4.  Repentance:  An obvious turning away from that sin or pattern of sin to live apart from (separated from) that sin or sin pattern (Acts 3:19).
  5.  Witness:  Become a living testimony to the power of the event in your life, to The Saving Gospel of Jesus Christ; to the continual saving power of God’s Word actively lived, to sanctification in the life of a Believer (Ephesians 5:25-27).

May GOD bless us as we continue the journey of our salvation- saved and being saved and ultimately saved by His great love, mercy, and grace!

Copyright 2023.    L. L.  Shelton

Folly’s Field

Poetry

I wish to see the tulips

In their splendor testify,

Your beauty is reality

Not some shell you hide behind.

Friendship is a solemn gift

Not given by the blind.

Is there something more you seek?

There is no more to find.

 

All are fools but for His Love,

No other story matters;

I have no greater gift to give,

Though see your heart in tatters.

An idol’s not a thing that lasts,

Broken bent and battered,

It’s buried deep beneath the earth,

With its subjects shattered.

Copyright 2023.    L.L Shelton.

Rodeo Drive

Poetry

Nothing to see,

Nothing to do,

All the world over

Nothing is new.

Empty faces,

Worn-out places,

Life is lost and

Leaves no traces.

Bitterness breaks

It down to the races,

Rich or poor

Everyman braces,

For final hour;

Where there is

No power

In self.

Copyright 2023.    L.L.  Shelton.

Litmus Test

Bible Talk

Characteristics of The People of The Way:  The Way of Love and Light and of Jesus Christ, Son of God:

  • They are devoted to The Scriptural Truth.
  • They love one another and have a habit of meeting regularly together.
  • Their life’s emphasis will remain on Jesus Christ and sharing the message of hope they have  found in Him, their Lord and Savior.
  • They want all that is good and right, and they actively seek it.
  • They do not wish for hidden things, or for things to remain hidden.
  • They move in light rather than darkness, and are given to and practice truth rather than lies.
  • They will consistently, though imperfectly, display love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
  • They revere all life.
  • They are kind to the earth- recognizing it as a gift from The Creator, while knowing that a created thing must never be worshipped, as worship is due The Creator alone. 
  • They recognize sin and evil coming from within and oppressing from without, and desire to be delivered from it.
  • They are discreet and they are authentic- come what may.
  • They have loved and they long for The Day of His Appearing.

Copyright 2023.     L.L. Shelton.