One of the most perplexing enigmas of the human experience is understanding the human mind. What makes us who and what we are. Comparatively speaking, physically a monkey’s brain and a human brain are very much the same in structure and mass. Yet there is more potential for development in a human brain than any other living creature. Why is this? Has it been evolution that has brought consciousness into the human being after millions of years of mutations or did consciousness come first? May I remind you we still haven’t found the missing link.
Now consider for example the absolute distinction between the enmity amity complex in the animal kingdom and that of humans behavior. That is the drive for territorial position. Animals do it out of instinct, humans act it out consciously out of greed the underlining cause of all wars. And where does this thing greed come from? My intention here is to add another perspective to help understand ourselves better. For if the next generation is to reap a better life than us, than the buck has to stop with us.
We begin by examining the five channels by which we instinctively recieve information into our brain; eyes, ears, nose, taste and touch. These are the only senses thru which we are able to assimilate physical information just like animal do. There is another sense, the sixth sense which is the realm of the spirit which only humans posses. Animals also posses such a six sense but on an animal level and it is not a conscious function that can determine or judge. A dog for example can feel negative and positive energy from their environment such as the energy that eminates from their owners. Thats why you can tell the character of the owner or family by the dog’s behaviour to a certain extent. A dog trainer must have positive energy which a dog feeds off if he or she is to train it. All you’ve got to do is watch the Dog Whisperer on TV at work. Suprisenly enough the owner is usually the one needing the training to change their behaviour.
Understanding Man
I start with a question. What did YHWH (God)breath in to man to make him a living, breathing, sentient being? Lets look at the Scriptural definition.
From: H5397
נשׁמה
neshâmâh
nesh-aw-maw’From H5395; a puff, that is, wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect or (concretely) an animal: – blast, (that) breath (-eth), inspiration, soul, spirit
God gave man the breath of life. It is by the experience of this spirit that humans are able to have consciousness and presence of mind which in turn brings about knowing. Knowing what? Knowing as we know life today. The physical channels coupled with the spirit implanted by God brings about understanding of good and evil rather than just instinctual behavior. The spirit is what give us human intelect and the ability to learn. This is what separates us from the rest of the animals, else we would be like mere beast of the field and as you will see without proper human guidance we would demise to such an end. As you read also bare in mind Satan the adversary has a constant wave of influences chizzling away at our minds hindering our ability to see spiritually.
There is a story in the Old Testament of a famous king named King Nebuchadnezzar who ruled Babylon (2 Kings). Because of his disobedient and claiming all he accomplished was his own doing, by his own power, he was stripped of his human spirit by God. He became as an animal living in the woods eating bugs and crawling things. He was stripped of his human spirit and presence of mind. His kingdom was at awe at their King spectacular demise. They must of thought he went mad. After many years God gave him back his human spirit, he received back his presense of mind. After coming to his senses he learned that the Most High rules in the kingdom of man. That it is God who is in control. It is an interesting story and fits well with the subject at hand in this chapter. Who and what we are as created beings. Historically on the surface, the battle of the wits has been fought amongst man, but deep down inside it has been against his Creator. God is the originator of the mind of man and He alone shapes and molds as He will. So it goes to say we can’t of ourselves do nothing (Joh 5:30). Thus we start as a mustard seed and grow as God directs our path. This king surely learn the hard way. But learn he did.
Lets look at the human mind a little closer thru a phenomenom called Feral Children. PBS at the time of this writting aired a mind blowing documentary on children having been raised by wolfs or dogs as a consequence of parental neglect. It has been discovered and now recorded on video the unfortunate end of children who either have been completely abandant or greatly neglected by their parents. The footages showed children from several parts of the world. This one particular female of about 14 years old was abandond by alcoholic parents and spent her crucial years of up to 5 years old around dogs. As you will see she looks like a human being but her behavior exhibited it that of a canine. At one point as she stood poised on her hands and knees the camera man walked over on the grass where she was. As he got close the child, she attacked with barks and growls and showing her teeth like a guard dog. As he retreated she went back to her conner and took her stance once again protecting her territory. She looked away but kept her eyes turned toward him in warning
Once again he attempted to close in and she attacked again and retreated when he backed off. This child’s countenance and visage was obsoletely empty of any human expression possible. She walked, ate, drank and shook like a dog in every manner. This was just one of the main cases presented in this documentary. It was one of the most provoking and saddest things I have seen in my life. So much for Walt Disney telling you the truth in their side of the story of the Jungle Boy. Please click on the link below for actual short video documentary.
Some children such as the above mentioned were taken in an attempt to rehabilitate and educate them, but ended in complete failure as far as transforming them into productive human being with a presense of mind. Why? Complete failure because they were not able to be taught the necessary skill such as language to interact with other human beings and become human themselves. What was found was that the part of the brain that learns language did not develop in the critical years between 1 and 6 years of age. As a result of not having any human connection, that part of the brain did not develop neurons and connecting fibers as the MRI showed. Further it was discovered that after a certain age it was too late and the brain was incapable of developing. Thus these children ended as hopeless cases in mental institutions. These children are called Ferals Children.
Here’s an excerpt from
http://williamcalvin.com/2000/SanDiegoSpeech.htm
I think an important interjection in respect to how humans learn language.
“Language is one critical difference. Humans are “left brained” — the plenum temporal that controls language is much larger on the left. (Laymen may know the term because the left brain also controls right-handedness.) Human infants are born as language learning machines. “First, infants begin forming up categories for the common speech sounds they hear, not whole words so much as the little units we call phonemes, less than a tenth of a second in duration. Categories allow them to generalize across speakers, so that the mother’s /ba/ sound and the father’s somewhat deeper /ba/ sound are treated the same despite their differences. By about a year of age, babies stop hearing many of these differences, having standardized them.
By a year of age, babies are discovering patterns in the strings of phonemes and acquiring six to nine new words every day, just from the examples they hear (long before they begin speaking them). The words acquiring meaning, the phonemes remain meaningless. You can say kids are like ‘sponges’ soaking up words but that’s too passive a notion, one of the reasons I prefer the more active ‘acquisitive’ as the characterization.
So kids have pyramided words atop the phonemes, and now have compound structures made from building blocks. But then they do it again, discovering patterns in the strings of words they hear and inferring the grammar of that particular language: ways of making plurals and past tenses and nested phrases. This happens between the ages of 18 and 36 months. Then they’re off detecting patterns on even longer time scales, that of the collection of sentences we call a story. They infer that a satisfying story has a beginning, middle, and a wrap-up ending – and then they start demanding proper endings for their bedtime stories.”
What can we deduce from this? I think a very paramount human reality. What ever it is that we are expose to growing up during those critical years has tremendous impact on our development into productive human beings. If a child is sexually molested or experiences some other sort of traumatic even early in life this has a detrimental blow to the functionality of that person later in their years. We see this in people every day with all sorts of hidden unknown trauma and conditionings which makes them what they are. They don’t know why they are how they are. They just say “thats how I am”. The next time you hear on the news a 13 years old killed their parents or some other traumatic event you may wonder deeper about what brought about such an event. You can perhaps have a more informed mind as you trek through life and perhaps learn to have a mercy by understanding all people are enduring thru their own personal plight. That stick and stone can break your bones is indeed true, but words can do even worst.
What does this say about evolution? Today at the cruz of human evolution we find that there is a part of the brain that unless expose to the correct evironment will not evolve. So all these supposed millions of years of human evolution and the human mind is incapacitated by a mizzly 6 years in the human cycle. We have learned that humans need humans to develop correctly. Expose a child to dogs and you get a dog result. So how did the first man learn language then? One word at a time? Today we have proof it is not possible for a human to learn after the first critical years of life. When you meditate on this honestly, poof! evolution disappears. So language could not have evolved by itself. Someone had to teach it! Where did we get all the languages of the world? God did it. He confused the people during the building of the towel of babble in the time of the first ruler Nimrod. God separated the people because of their rebellious attitude for if not, there was nothing they could not accomplish together. So He intentionaly stagnated their growth by destroying their power of unification by confusing their language. You will find this story in (Gen 11:9).
Now suppose the above is not true how then do scientist explain the unusually large human brain? A recent study exposes the difficulty faced by evolutionary biologists as they attempt to account for the emergence of the human brain by naturalistic processes. Researchers studied 214 genes involved in human brain development and showed, from an evolutionary perspective, that these genes must have undergone hyper-fast evolution to produce the large human brain with its advanced cognitive capacities. In the words of one of the investigators involved with the work, “To accomplish so much in so little evolutionary time…requires a selective process that is perhaps categorically different from the typical processes of acquiring new biological traits.” This type of rapid and extensive genetic change makes little sense from an evolutionary perspective, given the deleterious effects of most mutations and the extensive complexity and integration of the biological systems that make up the human brain. If anything, this hyper-fast evolution should be catastrophic.” Reference: Steve Dorus et al., “Accelerated Evolution of Nervous System Genes in the Origin of Homo sapiens,” Cell 119 (2004): 1027-40.
Intellectual minds are disturbed that they are sinners and they don’t like the idea that they are powerless. They think they are on a higher plane than you and I and are disturbed with the creation story . I wonder why? I got it folks its the Ego again! Heres what the Apostle Paul had to said about :
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” (Rom. 1:22).
Their only recourse is to fanthom all sorts of implausible theories about how we got here . When it comes to evolution they can’t never agree on the details, just that there is no God. But if you are of the thought that we are nothing more than protons, neutrons and electrons and at the end no more than a monkey with a banana in his hands, I ask why peel that banana?
Yahsuah explained we need a doctor, all of us. We may not want to admit it but the most intelligent of us need spiritual intervention which without, going to the doctor’s office all he can provide it some sort of drug to ease the beast within. Paul mentioned to be diligently by the “renewing” of your minds, with spiritual food(Rom 12:2). The most ignorant of us sit in high pedestal governing the life of many while years of dysfunction governs their. Formal president of the United States Jimmy Carter recently confessed his ignorance of true world condition and his inability to realize and admit to it during his presidential years. Today he stands as one of the foremost individual on the scene in helping the undeveloped nations of the world. He proclaimed the U.S.A as being the most stingiest nation in the world. This man’s mind has been opened to see the reality of life for what it is, not what we internalise it to be for our own sake. Had he known what he knows now he said, he would have done things much more differently and probably gotten shot for it. He was obviously not taught properly as a child the principle of living righteously.
Take Elvis Presley the famous pop start of the 50’s and 60’s matched only by Michael Jackson infamous moon walk, which by the way he copied from Fred Astair, started off as a well groomed youngster. All the money and glory shot his Ego over his head and he lost total control. At the end he died a drunkard and drug addict. What about King David, a man after God’s own heart? He was a God fearing youngster who thru faith killed the giant Philistine Goliath. At the middle of his reign he had his most entrusted guard put in the front line of battle. Why? He had fallen in lust over this man’s wife and wanted him dead so that he may take his wife. This man thought he had the right to do as he please. God punished him by taking his first son away from him from this woman. He then realized what a terrible thing he had done and repented. Nevertheless, his Ego went to his head and God brought him down again. What about you where do you stand inside your heart? Whether you are rich or poor it is a matter of the heart and we all need it fix.
CHILDREN
Lets go back to the subject of the mind again in regards to children. I want to turn your attention now to my opening Greeting where I mentioned about the tantramed filled child called sweetie. Well, I think you will agree that they are really not so sweet when they are venting their childish tantrum becoming specticles around people. I like to touch on this subject a little as I have seen so much of it and give you a correlation in regard to the cause of sweety tantraum while keeping the information on Feral’s Children in mind. But before this lets look at a very unsual revelation you won’t hear your preacher tell you of who we really are as created beings.
What is man?
In religious circles man is call a “soul”. But is that what your Bible says? Lets clear the air on this and hopefully bring a better understading of my intention with regards to the mind of man. In Gen 2:7 it reads:
“And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”
The below is strong’s definition for the word used as soul:
H5315
נפשׁ
nephesh
neh’-fesh
It is the same word used to describe all the living ” creatures” God made Gen 1:21. No man is not a soul with eternal life. The Scriptures are clear about this. But lets look at the new testament for another witness to this.
Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,…(KJV)
The word here is strong’s #G2937. Indicating original formation. A creature.
G2937
κτίσις
ktisis
ktis’-is
From G2936; original formation (properly the act; by implication the thing, literally or figuratively): – building, creation, creature, ordinance.
Man as we can see is an animal by design. Thats how God chose to do things and accomplish his means. Man is immortal and dies just like the beast of the field. No man can bost about himself.
Ecc 3:19 For that which happens to the sons of men, and that which happens to beasts, even one event is to them. As this one dies, so that one dies; yea, one breath is to all; so that there is to the man no advantage over the beast; for all is vanity.
King David asked the question of what is man? Later what did he writes:
Psa 73:22 “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee”.
The powers that be understand much about the beast in man and they have been using this information in ways the average person has no idea of and manipulating them. The following link will give you a true undertanding of what’s really taking place around you:
What is the most incredible thing taking place on earth since the creation? God (YHWH) is creating spiritual beings like Him out of living creatures. This is why we need God in our lives because without him we are like chaff before the winds. Our children become what we are in time. This is simply what is going on with your children. What they see they become just like those feral children who became like dogs. God said he puts before us life and death and to choose life. Jesus said ” I am the life…” Choose life! I hope the rest of what I have to say becomes more meaningful in lite of what I have just revealed to you.
What’s the best way to raise your children? Ask this question and the myriad of answers are endless and mostly depends on the individual’s moral and ethical basis. What is the one needed factor in knowing what to really do in doing your best in rasing your child? Is not spanking your child wrong because they are only children ? “Dont hit your mom sweety” she said, why the child kicks her violently. Is it really love or is it that you don’t want to face the music and deal with the problem? That you have brought a life into this world who by nature is evil from birth, but you didn’t know that. But have no fear you can now hire a “Nanny 911″ to come to your home and tip you on what to do with YOUR CHILD. Who’s in control you or your child? Perhaps your mother was overbearing and you are afraid to be the same. You are genuienly being extra careful. Why is the child out of control then? Maybe just maybe you yourself have not really grown up yet and your child is exhibiting your own behavior.
Nevertheless, you decide your child needs to attend decipline school to make him or her a better child. Why not honestly admit your inability to deal with your child at an adult level, instead of saying I dont have the time or what ever else excuse you may come which really is an indication of something wrong with you. Your not wanting to face the music with your child at the final analyses says one thing only, you dont love your child. Oh but I do, how dare I say such a thing like this! I think you need to sit down and think deeply about this and be absolutely honest with yourself. Love is a much deeper attribute than human affection and emotion.
Again children are mostly a reflection of their parents. They emulate and act out their parents behavioral patterns just like those Ferrals children behave like dogs. This happens very early in life. Now, while the child does picks up bits and pieces outside the home, the core of his/her learning is from the home, from you the parent and you are supposed to be there to correct those outside influences. Perhaps you may not want to accept this but you are the reason your child is spoil and disrespectful to a large extend. Look your brain is liken to a tape recorder. What ever is hears it registers and after continual repetition it becomes the person’s behavior and eventually the character. Phobias for example are learned disorders early in childhood such as fear of snakes, height, flight almost anything. Some people are afraid of mustered or balloons imagine that.
Most self-help books and phychotherapy approach is an attempt to override bad learned behaviors with positive thinking methods or even the use of hypnoses. When a parent is tolerant of unacceptable behaviors they are indirectly telling the child its okay to behave this way and giving control to the child. Oh my I can’t bare to hit my child, he/she is only four, while the child goes into its tantrum again kicking the parent. The child will only reach a critical point when the rod of correction has failed to be applied and tolerance on your part at the very early stage ruled. The absent of the father has a tremendour bearing and leads to more drastic measures such as tough love where children are sent to teenage boot camps at a shot gun approach to rehabilitation. This is such a sad means to an end as they are mentally broken down at a grasping attempt to undo tolerance parents are culpable of. The children now pay the price for parents lack of self discipline and maturity. A broken family yields broken children which yield a broken society which yield a broken world. Not a pretty picture.
Teach a child in the way he should grow and he will never depart from it” “Do not withhold the rod from a child”. Ever heard these words before. They come straight from the Bible. God chastises his children (us) out of love with divine situation he presents to us individually. We the parents are like God to our children. They actually praise us in their own little way. Talking to a bad behaved child after a couple of time ” sweetie mommie is not going to give you any candy if you don’t stop” aint going to work. When you do that and let him continue, you reinforce it is okay to behave that way. No I dont mean take a bat and beat your child with it please! I am talking about using common sense. But afterward reinforce it with love and explanation.
Does doing the best your know to do correctly guaranteed the best child in the world. No for every human being has his or hers individual path in life. But you will have laid the foundation in helping that child know in their heart the choices they should make in life, for as in all things God is in control. As parents we ourselves are plaque with luggages of our own and we hate to be told that we are wrong. Its a big sting to our Ego who’s always right. But the fact is that we are ultimately responsible for our children to a certain age. What age is that? The age of responsibility when the child is able to make outright accountable decision. Here in the U.S. it is age 18. In other society some children are working at age 10. My wife was driving a stick shift truck at the age of 12. When you give a child everything its wants without working for it you spoil them. They grow up thinking thats the way its suppose to be. Teach a child to work even for a piece of candy and you will be building character of gold in their heart. You will always know you did the right thing.
At this point you may still be saying I don’t know what I am saying or” Ah, but you just dont know my child I’ve done everything and he’s just got this certain way about him”. Ah but I do and here are some Scriptures that will sheds some light into the inherent problem of most children which you within your own personality may need to correct yourself. At this point I will tell I have had small children as little as three years old spit in my face. After going thru these Scriptures the challenge will be upon you to ponder whether it is your Ego wanting to be right or God’s wisdom which is right.
Pro 20:11 “Even a child is know by his doings whether his work be pure, and whether it be right”. Ever see a child’s behavior and quickly able to judge his character even though it is only a child? I see it all the time.
Prov 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. We all have finally after growing up realize what our parents were trying to do with us when they punished us growing up. So will yours when they grow up even thought it may seem it didn’t work temporarily.
Prov 22:15 “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him”. Many of us still carry around with us our foolishness that wasn’t driven from us in our early years.
Pro 243:13 “Withold not correction from the child for it thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die”. I suppose this hurts those of you who subscribe that “he’s only a child” syndrome. But woo! to those of you who do not restrain your over correction.
Prov 34:24 “The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.” See the blessing and the joy a good son or daughter can be to us.
Prov 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame”. In my line of work dealing with customer I have seen so many mothers look so foolish as their children talked back to them and defy their correction.
Psa 58:3 “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies”. Those are not my words but Gods own edict if you believe the Bible. We are all wicked and foolish people and so are our children born with evil inclinations. Do you have eyes to see now why we must be active parent and not tolerant. Passivity on our parts brings demise to our children.
So what is the main ingredient in raising your child? Love! Oh but I love my child. I know you do in a very human way. We really don’t know how to love. What do I mean? What is love? Love is the fulfillment of the Commandment. This type of love surpasses all things? Love, real love requires a challenge within yourself to realize that you don’t exist for yourself anymore. It requires doing what may be against your self will, which you may think is correct. It requires that all the hard work you do may end in dismay temporarily. That one day they will grow up and you will no longer be in control and they may fail your expectations. You will have to face the fact that you don’t own your children, they were a gift to you for a while. That after a time it is between them and God as it is with you. All you do is plant the seed. How it grows is a personal plight as God directs it. But the reward is in your own personal growth as a human being by giving the totality of yourself to another. Carrying out Gods devine will to be fruitful and multiply and glorifying Him thru the sacrafice of your own being.
My last words are these. This has not being an attempt at psychoanalyzing the mind. It is however, a spiritual perspective in showing from where the seed of all maladies stem which psychologist in general refused to acknowledge because YHWH is not in the picture. A full blown Ego is a deadly thing and it starts in the mind. Raising our children properly in fear of God is the prime ingredient. You then apply proper parental guidance such as making them work for every reward and being firm in your position as parents. This will give them the character they need to emulate as they grow. As you can see the Ego rears it’s ugly head even in infants and only thru Godly love will we instill in them the discipline they need to eventually mature with a sound mind. It is our job not the school teachers or the government!! It starts with us and finishes with us until they reach the age of maturity and accountability. For you are not responsible for their sins afterwards as they are not responsible for yours . But before we can make that prime impact on them we need to get our act together ourselves. We need to begin on a spiritual quest, a renewing of our minds that we may transmit the same to our children. We are admonished by the below scripture to:
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (I John 2:15-16).
We need to know ourselves and seek self improvement. For we ourselves have been damaged in many ways and this is what our children learn. You may believe your ways are right with all your child rearing help books on your left. But if its not Biblically based then it has no true foundation, and if your mind is worldly fucussed, then it is only carnal at best. Lets do better with the next generation by starting the healing process ourselves first. For in many ways we are ferral children ourselves groping to make sense of life. Remember from one to six years old we can either make or break them for many years to come and for that we are responsible. I hope this information will help you get started towards your destiny with your children which are a “gift” from God.
Watch the video below for a smile.
From H5314; properly a breathing creature, that is, animal or (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental): – any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, X dead (-ly), desire, X [dis-] contented, X fish, ghost, + greedy, he, heart (-y), (hath, X jeopardy of) life (X in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortality, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, + slay, soul, + tablet, they, thing, (X she) will, X would have it.