WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR RUCKSACK?
WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR RUCKSACK?
Part 1
You might wonder what I am referring to, but I do believe that you understand that I write symbolically. I do write occasionally about the things I am dealing with daily both through teaching and counselling. I am now back to the problems that we can harbor in our soul and body. Our born-again spirit is totally clean and righteous because of Jesus.
I just arrived from a meeting where I was teaching, using three rucksacks. I started with the small one. It represented the things a child can have. A child doesn’t enter into this world perfect. It is a product of his or her mother and father. They also had a mother and a father. The child has inherited things that run in the family. It can be curses, sicknesses and alcoholism. Some families are circling around lack of money. In other families we find a lot of violence. Violence breeds violence. Fear and anxiety are almost contagious. I know of children that are born with a spirit of fear. Others are born with a spirit of rejection if they are not wanted. I can hear the protest from some of you. You do not believe that a child can be born with demonic powers. If these things run in the families, I believe that a child can be born with demonic powers. We read in 1.Peter1:18 that we can be redeemed from aimless conduct from our forefathers. We can do this in the name of Jesus. We belong to another family now. We are born by a perfect Father, God, the Almighty. I broke many things over my children when they were small. I often did it when they were asleep. God showed me tendencies from my mother and father and that of my husband’s family. I could do so since the demons hadn’t entered through sinful conduct of my children.
Most parents do the best they can for their children, but they can also lack wisdom. We might say things that can hurt the child. We might not think that when we say it. I’ll mention a couple of examples. If your child refuses to eat, you might say: “You will die of hunger.” If the child resists doing homework, you might say: ”You will never be able to work and you will not get any money then.” If the child eats too much, you might say: “You will get fat and you will look so ugly that nobody wants you.”
We adults can curse our children with our words.
Words do not disappear by themselves. They will be like a cover over us. God can use the true and positive words and the devil will use the negative and lying ones. We must watch our tongue. The Bible says that we have death and life in our tongue. (The Proverbs 18:21 and James 3)
We have talked about the inheritance and words, but the rucksack will also be filled with negative experiences of a child. If the child is growing up in a family with lots of love and security, the rucksack will not become so heavy. If the parents quarrel, the child might become insecure. Many children come from homes where one or both parents misuse alcohol or drugs. The behavior of the parents changes under such influence. They might become violent or aggressive while they normally are much more in balance. This creates insecurity. When the child enters the house, she or he wonders: “Must I go to my room and be quiet today?” Sometimes the parents fall asleep under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This is not good either even if it easier to handle.
In our Nordic countries, children attend pre-schools and kindergarten and later normal schools. The teachers there might treat the children differently than the parents. That might create insecurity in the children. It is therefore important that the teachers and the parents talk together. How and when do they set boundaries? What is allowed and what is not? Does the child need to eat all kinds of food and does he or she need to eat everything before they get desert?
It might be a shock for the only child to share the attention with many other children. All children are not nice either. They might meet quarrelling about toys and some children are even harassed. If you have been harassed, you will get some heavy stones in your rucksack. This can actually follow a person all his life if the pattern isn’t broken and the wounds healed.
Teachers have an enormous influence on a child’s life. I can often hear an adult saying: “If it hadn’t been for this particular teacher, I might have quit going to school or I had lost confidence in myself.”
Teachers can either help you to get rid of some stones or he or she can put some more down into your rucksack.
RUCKSACKS NEED TO BE EMPTIED!
Mother Else