The Joy of Children

The Joy of Children

One of God's Special Gifts

 

I am blessed. God has given me 10 children. I appreciate the passage in Matthew 18 where Jesus calls a little child over and speaks to the people.

 Vs 3 – Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.  It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angles always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety –nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

Look at the tenor of this scripture. Jesus is calling us to be as little children. Little children have an innocence and purity about them. They are dependent upon their father. God wants us to be pure and innocent and dependent upon him. It is a good thing to be pure and innocent and dependent.

Verse 5: Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. Wow that is huge! What is our attitude to be toward little children? The attitude we have toward our Lord. Our Father. Children always adore their father when he is a good father and often even when he is not a good father. God put that in us to love our father. He wants us to love Him in that way. He wants us to not just wave at Him but to literally reach up to him as we see children all the time doing to their father. It is very natural for children to reach up to their father. They want to be in his embrace. The same should be the heart of a parent. God entrusts us with a precious little child. This is a gift from Him. I look into those beautiful new little eyes and I see purity from the Father. This child is brand new. This child loves its parents in the natural way that God has given it. This brand new baby wants to love it’s parents. Why did God make infants so dependent? I remember how amazed I was with my first new infant at how much you can love this brand new person so absolutely and completely. Isn’t it like that for most new parents? Then another God thing is that that same amazing thing happens with each child. You cannot believe you have room for that much more love again but we just do. It is the way God made us. It is the shadow of His love for us. He never gets tired of adding another new child to the family. Praise Him for His abundant love.

My heart is aching because of the materials one man has put out that many parents over the years and even still now are learning from. I believe evil gets into our churches any way it can. I believe Gary Ezzo is bringing evil into our church families’ homes. The Growing Kids Gods Way program does not set a higher standard. It tears down. It belittles God’s own creation. God knew what instructions we needed on parenting. He wrote them in His Word. He wrote them in our hearts. He gave women in particular that nurturing instinct that will drive us to lay down our lives for our child if necessary or induce us to hold a precious little one in our arms for hours. He is our example. Can I only get attention from Him every three hours? Do I have to stay quiet (sleep) for 1 ½ hours before he will again nourish me? It is a terrible person who tells a mother that she should only feed her baby every three hours or so. How dare he presume upon God’s creation so! God is so incredible that He created each human unique. When two unique humans come together and become one, they are now a unique couple. No other couple alive today or having lived in the past is exactly just like any other couple. That is the wonder of God. No two bodies respond to the same thing at the same time in the same way. God is incredible. Why would we mere humans presume that we can come up with a system that will work for all or even many babies? Gary Ezzo in his teachings takes a profound miracle of life and tries to put it in a box. Shame on him. He is taking joy away from new parents.  He leads mothers (women created with the feminine attributes of the God-head that men were not created with) to question their nurturing instincts and see the desire to hold their babies as much as they would like to, as giving in to emotion. Something they must learn to squelch. That is so wrong.

I have cared for failure-to-thrive children. Those children did not get that way from plenty of holding and being loved on by their parents. It took much physical loving and immediate attending to their needs to gain the trust of failure-to-thrive children. Those children did not get into their condition alone. It was the adults that left them alone and did not respond to their God given needs who cause their condition. I know what it takes to bring those children back because I have done it. There are no manuals or classes to tell you how to do that. We had to rely upon God’s promptings in our adult lives to give the children the nurturing they needed. To see a child blossom out of being a failure-to-thrive child is incredible. To see children in that condition or children headed in that direction is a heart-break. I have been shocked at what some Ezzo trained parents are doing to their children and calling it caring and disciplining. I have fixed messed up children. I know what I am talking about. I know the reality. Not only did God bless us with 10 children of our own to raise, He also gave us the opportunity to touch the lives of 139 foster children.

Please do not ever be tempted into going to an Ezzo presentation. I believe he is a man bringing evil into the church.