Environments...
Environments....; they're rich with influence and eternally out in front of us laying out the landscape on which our levels of enlightenment unfold and sow their affect on those around us. What should we realize about them so that we might be better prepared to handle their influence on the core of our human being? Although there is an enormous amount of realization necessary, we begin with the understanding that the world that is current and ever present is given power to rule over us, by us, to differing degrees according to our connection to the larger context of reality. Each and every human being shapes his or her beliefs from within a realized context of understanding through knowledge. Human wisdom (a level of awareness) is not enough. We need more. We need the gift of faith to believe in the Wisdom of our fully real Father, our Maker, the Creator of our being from beyond this material world. This is the next level, the higher plateau where True Wisdom has its place. It is from this setting above the trees, from this enlightened environment that we are enabled to rise above our incomplete mentality and see. Our unconscious fears, reasonable and unreasonable are those that determine where we set up camp in evaluation of our environmental circumstances and then rise up or fall before them. We are spirits, and if we are allowing them to be ruled by an out of context immediacy, it is a clue that our fears are unreasonable, and that our view of the world is out of step with the greater reality. When this is the case, we've given an untruthful spirit permission to explain our circumstances, the permission to paint a false picture of what is happening all around us. At a subconscious level we've been bound and imprisoned by an enchanted view of reality; a view of the world at odds with the Truth.
For each of us, the people, the places, the things, the landscapes we walk through in our experience are but a shadow of the reality we're a apart of. From the human perspective we see and then evaluate our circumstances through kaleidoscopes, through incomplete and broken pictures of the world around us, and sow seeds of deception and indifference unaware. Our environments influence us deeply and cause us to act out in ways that are wrong because we simply must act (we can’t FREEZE, so we move forward in the only way we know how, usually by the seat of our pants). We may only react to the things continually occurring around us according to the level of knowledge we’ve arrived at and believe within us, whether that knowledge is true or not. As life goes on, the seeds planted and watered in childhood grow in specific directions, either remaining near what is real or straying farther away from reality. A good analogy comes from the game of golf. When we’re born, our lives are likened to the golf ball sitting atop of the tee. If the ball is hit squarely, it flies directly down the fairway into adolescence and then adulthood, landing in a desirable position for the next swing of the club, or our next phase of life. If on the other hand it is hooked or sliced one way or the other, the further it flies away from the tee, the further it finds itself moving away from its target (reality), making par for the course increasingly difficult to achieve. The truth is, the farther we stray from God’s truth about life, the greater difficulty we will have finding our way back to the center, and the more we will encourage others to do the same.
In this physically spiritual life we make a choice for black or for white, for real or for unreal, for truth or for deception in every decision we make, and it all begins with small and seemingly insignificant agreements with spiritual forces along the way. We build the homes we live in by methodologies, or foundations of belief arrived at according to the the environmental conditions we allow ourselves to be influenced by, and then believe in, either by cohesive or faulty logic. To see what is real we must continually test our motives up against the Creators True perspective, by the truth of the Creators Wisdom as opposed to the wisdom of men.
There are endless environments that lead us into worldviews that are both more true or less true with regard to reality. On the less true side, the most powerful of all is the place where most of us begin our more expanded sphere of learning. Our school systems culture, both public and private do more to lure our kids away from reality than all other institutions combined due to the pressures between young peers and the newly present authority of teaching 'professionals' who may or may not have found their way. Once our children become connected to one another on the playground, and to the institution of education in the classroom, everything changes. It is from within this melting pot of newly emerging childhood worldviews that they (we) grow up into adulthood, and if we fail to break out, continue the cycle all over again with kids of our own. Within contexts of extreme naivete and an environment where children make up the overwhelming majority, kids begin believing kids and modeling themselves after teachers who must be right simply because they've been approved by this seemingly larger than life institution given authority to lead. From here the child is reshaped to differing degrees, depending on the foundation of love and solid reasoning implanted at home by the most important and responsible teachers of all, their parents. Our problems and our solutions begin at HOME with Mom and Dad. We need to understand TRUE wisdom, taught with a right attitude, and we need it when we're young.
If we are spirits (and we are, primarily and foremost), we flourish by knowing the essence of our spiritual makeup from the beginning. Mom and Dad plant our feet on the ground with solid and truthful reasoning which allows our spirits to bear lasting fruits (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control). These are magnificent traits we all wish we'd been reared in the midst of. We see their value, their foundational springboard for our lives, and know that they are right because that knowing has always been intended. On the other hand, if Mom and Dad stumble on this front, failing to provide us with an understanding of what it is that makes us tick, we know (intrinsically, subconsciously) that something essential and primary is missing, and inevitably venture out on our own in search of it. When we're left without a compass, without conviction, without the essential tools necessary to lead, we follow, seeking that being, that wholeness that might draw others to us in the ways we know were (mysteriously) meant to be. Our spirits crave an orderly form of love, and if it does not begin in the home with solid motives behind it, it will be pursued outside of it at our likely peril.
Mom and Dad should always be those with the most influence over us, those creating within us an environment so real we won't find sufficient reason to depart from it (We speak from both sides of the fence, as Moms and Dads, and as kids looking up to them, knowing the cycles of life). It is our job as parents to know reality so well that our kids won't be easily taken away by the enticement of shiny false things. They are powerful, and they lie in wait for cracks in our armor, hoping for an attitude of selfishness to do its work within our sphere of influence. The art of self-lessness shows up in the same ways selfish hearts are revealed, through experience, and if we as parents become self-focused, our kids will recognize it and we will rightly lose a degree of healthy influence over their lives. In our continual inward (self-ward) turning, they will turn increasingly outward and away from us in search of a thing more whole one moment at a time, one day at a time, one year at a time until the golf ball finds itself lost deeply within the rough. But, conversely, as parents consistently modeling spirits of selflessness, those same kids will find good reason to continue in the fold, that model of life that has affirmed continual, positive long term results through grounded parental action.
Overwhelmingly, raising kids according to God’s higher Wisdom works, but of course the reality is that the great majority of parents fall far short when it comes to teaching their kids what is actually true about their lives. Those without the benefits of early Truth centered foundational learning in the home grow up having no real clue which road to follow and choose pathways uncertain, most often in fleeting attempts to impress the most charismatic, yet perhaps equally lost kids on the playground or instructors presiding over them, never seeing the results of their choices until its too late; until they've reared and raised kids of their own and succeeded in extending the cycle of confusion all over again. Most never turn to higher wisdom, living entire lifetimes under the veil spread out over them by the affects of unwise and faulty youthful experience. By far, the greatest blessing we can receive as children is one of birthright into a family where the generations that have gone before us have realized their need and then come to a cohesive understanding of the truth about life and continued in it. When this happens the environmental landscape is so constructed that in the long run, the children know that it would be foolish to depart from the attitudes they’ve identified with at a place so close to the heart. From the beginning for these kids, poor character and false reasoning, are more readily identified with regard to peers and instructors in authority, enabling them to walk away from misleading influence with confidence and grace.
For each of us, the people, the places, the things, the landscapes we walk through in our experience are but a shadow of the reality we're a apart of. From the human perspective we see and then evaluate our circumstances through kaleidoscopes, through incomplete and broken pictures of the world around us, and sow seeds of deception and indifference unaware. Our environments influence us deeply and cause us to act out in ways that are wrong because we simply must act (we can’t FREEZE, so we move forward in the only way we know how, usually by the seat of our pants). We may only react to the things continually occurring around us according to the level of knowledge we’ve arrived at and believe within us, whether that knowledge is true or not. As life goes on, the seeds planted and watered in childhood grow in specific directions, either remaining near what is real or straying farther away from reality. A good analogy comes from the game of golf. When we’re born, our lives are likened to the golf ball sitting atop of the tee. If the ball is hit squarely, it flies directly down the fairway into adolescence and then adulthood, landing in a desirable position for the next swing of the club, or our next phase of life. If on the other hand it is hooked or sliced one way or the other, the further it flies away from the tee, the further it finds itself moving away from its target (reality), making par for the course increasingly difficult to achieve. The truth is, the farther we stray from God’s truth about life, the greater difficulty we will have finding our way back to the center, and the more we will encourage others to do the same.
In this physically spiritual life we make a choice for black or for white, for real or for unreal, for truth or for deception in every decision we make, and it all begins with small and seemingly insignificant agreements with spiritual forces along the way. We build the homes we live in by methodologies, or foundations of belief arrived at according to the the environmental conditions we allow ourselves to be influenced by, and then believe in, either by cohesive or faulty logic. To see what is real we must continually test our motives up against the Creators True perspective, by the truth of the Creators Wisdom as opposed to the wisdom of men.
There are endless environments that lead us into worldviews that are both more true or less true with regard to reality. On the less true side, the most powerful of all is the place where most of us begin our more expanded sphere of learning. Our school systems culture, both public and private do more to lure our kids away from reality than all other institutions combined due to the pressures between young peers and the newly present authority of teaching 'professionals' who may or may not have found their way. Once our children become connected to one another on the playground, and to the institution of education in the classroom, everything changes. It is from within this melting pot of newly emerging childhood worldviews that they (we) grow up into adulthood, and if we fail to break out, continue the cycle all over again with kids of our own. Within contexts of extreme naivete and an environment where children make up the overwhelming majority, kids begin believing kids and modeling themselves after teachers who must be right simply because they've been approved by this seemingly larger than life institution given authority to lead. From here the child is reshaped to differing degrees, depending on the foundation of love and solid reasoning implanted at home by the most important and responsible teachers of all, their parents. Our problems and our solutions begin at HOME with Mom and Dad. We need to understand TRUE wisdom, taught with a right attitude, and we need it when we're young.
If we are spirits (and we are, primarily and foremost), we flourish by knowing the essence of our spiritual makeup from the beginning. Mom and Dad plant our feet on the ground with solid and truthful reasoning which allows our spirits to bear lasting fruits (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control). These are magnificent traits we all wish we'd been reared in the midst of. We see their value, their foundational springboard for our lives, and know that they are right because that knowing has always been intended. On the other hand, if Mom and Dad stumble on this front, failing to provide us with an understanding of what it is that makes us tick, we know (intrinsically, subconsciously) that something essential and primary is missing, and inevitably venture out on our own in search of it. When we're left without a compass, without conviction, without the essential tools necessary to lead, we follow, seeking that being, that wholeness that might draw others to us in the ways we know were (mysteriously) meant to be. Our spirits crave an orderly form of love, and if it does not begin in the home with solid motives behind it, it will be pursued outside of it at our likely peril.
Mom and Dad should always be those with the most influence over us, those creating within us an environment so real we won't find sufficient reason to depart from it (We speak from both sides of the fence, as Moms and Dads, and as kids looking up to them, knowing the cycles of life). It is our job as parents to know reality so well that our kids won't be easily taken away by the enticement of shiny false things. They are powerful, and they lie in wait for cracks in our armor, hoping for an attitude of selfishness to do its work within our sphere of influence. The art of self-lessness shows up in the same ways selfish hearts are revealed, through experience, and if we as parents become self-focused, our kids will recognize it and we will rightly lose a degree of healthy influence over their lives. In our continual inward (self-ward) turning, they will turn increasingly outward and away from us in search of a thing more whole one moment at a time, one day at a time, one year at a time until the golf ball finds itself lost deeply within the rough. But, conversely, as parents consistently modeling spirits of selflessness, those same kids will find good reason to continue in the fold, that model of life that has affirmed continual, positive long term results through grounded parental action.
Overwhelmingly, raising kids according to God’s higher Wisdom works, but of course the reality is that the great majority of parents fall far short when it comes to teaching their kids what is actually true about their lives. Those without the benefits of early Truth centered foundational learning in the home grow up having no real clue which road to follow and choose pathways uncertain, most often in fleeting attempts to impress the most charismatic, yet perhaps equally lost kids on the playground or instructors presiding over them, never seeing the results of their choices until its too late; until they've reared and raised kids of their own and succeeded in extending the cycle of confusion all over again. Most never turn to higher wisdom, living entire lifetimes under the veil spread out over them by the affects of unwise and faulty youthful experience. By far, the greatest blessing we can receive as children is one of birthright into a family where the generations that have gone before us have realized their need and then come to a cohesive understanding of the truth about life and continued in it. When this happens the environmental landscape is so constructed that in the long run, the children know that it would be foolish to depart from the attitudes they’ve identified with at a place so close to the heart. From the beginning for these kids, poor character and false reasoning, are more readily identified with regard to peers and instructors in authority, enabling them to walk away from misleading influence with confidence and grace.