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Day 1
“Can a woman for get her nursing child. And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have you inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” Isaiah 49:15-16
The most natural drive in the human experience lies in the heart of parenting children. Nothing is more fundamental to this drive than to protect and to have compassion on the son or daughter of my own creativity. Yet the Bible states that even though this is the most basic of all experiences, should a mother or a father not have compassion on their children and actually forget them that God Himself remains so intimately involved with the child that there is no forgetfulness. This union of God with the soul of each person is critical to His nature of love, but is not a union that always is experienced by the child. This reality of God toward us is etched forever upon the heart of God, but the child needs to respond in love with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength to God in order to receive in his own experience this intimacy which brings about security.
The nurturing needs that a child requires at every level of his life and which can only be met by and through the parents do not vanish just because the parents do not choose, or cannot respond to the needs. The nurturing needs remain the sovereign domain of the parents to meet. No one else will be held responsible for these needs being met. Many other people can play supplementary roles in the meeting of the nurturing needs of the child, but only the parents can satisfy. Whether through negligence or through outright rebellion parents lack compassion or actually forget their child, the resulting experience within the child is felt as abandonment
What does abandonment feel like? What are the dynamics which abandonment sets up within a person’s life? How does abandonment affect our personality formation and the right or wrong direction in life? Because abandonment is absolutely contrary to God’s Love, the effects will be powerful and significant. Within the love of nurturing parents, children experience first stability and security. The external events that surround our lives only tend to influence the reality established within the love relationship that either exists or doesn’t exist between a child and his parent(s). Many different sinful addictions - e.g. alcoholism, domestic violence, drug addiction, gambling, gluttony, crime, promiscuity, etc. - create forgetfulness in parents as their lives grow more and more self-centered in the sinful addiction. The child cannot he seen as an individual but only as an object that happens to be present, like a comfortable bed or an old shoe, or perhaps like persistent weeds in a garden that need scolding. In the midst of daily life, the child grows accustomed to not being seen, to being unimportant, resulting in developing an ever deepening sense of insecurity of their own significance and purpose for living.
Abandonment often presents itself as a vague sensation that everything is in place but everything is out of order. The light of the future dims before a marching darkness that advances at times slyly, other times boldly, but always pushing forward, clouding out any sun that may be peeking through. Running here or there to find a source of light, the child continually fails to out distance the progressing doom of blackness, leaving a greater and greater feeling of uncertainty growing inside.
But God said that He holds me in the palms of His Hand. He said that He has inscribed me, carved me, on His Hand. I am embraced by Him. Here and only here is there comfort! Wake up to His Hand surrounding me! Oh my soul! Awake!
-excerpt taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 11-19
Day 2
“But a crushed spirit who can bear?” Proverbs 18:14
“But a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22
“But heartache crushes the spirit.” Proverbs 15:13
The Bible presents the heart of God as one of Love and Tenderness and Faithfulness for all of His Creation. God in His Infinite Wisdom when he designed and created Adam and Eve mandated that they procreate and bring forth children and fill the face of the earth. When God designed them to have children he planned that the child would be absolutely dependent on them for his very life and that without the basic needs being met that the child would die. Thus the parents would for a short time participate in a divine role with their child. This taste of the divine was filled with serious responsibilities toward the child in their care.
Each parent was to learn through this experience of the relationship God desired with them and the truth of their own dependency upon God for sustaining their very life. God knew that when parents willingly participated in this relationship with their own child that within the child would form in his spirit a deep sense of security based first and foremost in the Love of the parents. This deep sense of security would then allow the child the freedom to explore his own creation as a person within the loving limitations and guidelines of his parents. As the child would continue to explore and feel comfortable within his own self the root foundation of being secure within the parents’ love would be transferred into the relationship with God Himself and therein the right direction for life would be established through the leading of the Holy Spirit. As the dependency upon the parents would give way to the dependency upon God, the young child, now growing into maturity as a young adult, would then be ready to form a new love relationship with a mate and start the process over again.
But when the above process gets interrupted by the sin of negligence or rebellion in the parent, the child will suffer the consequences. The earlier the interruption begins the more serious the consequence to the child. Thus when a life-dominating self-centered sin or addiction takes possession of a parent, all relationships are affected. The parental responsibilities connected with Love are then seriously diminished or absent. The child experiences this diminishment or absence as abandonment and the very security that he needs to rest in and be nurtured in fails to establish itself within his spirit, creating heartache and lack of boundaries which only Love borne of selflessness can established.
Security is fundamental to a child’s spirit. Security acts as a ring of protection around the child keeping the burden of sin and temptation far from the spirit. When security is not present, the spirit feels the weight of sin’s burden crushing it of life. In desperation the child seeks for security out its own instinctual drive, but now without the protection of Love and under the burden of original sin. This drive for security then tends to take him far from God’s Love and toward paths that are always wrong.
As the child grows, this need for security does not vanish but only intensifies. Because the Love of the parent was, in truth, meant to be the Love of God being shared through the parents, thus allowing the parents an opportunity to participate in the Love of God in a sovereign way, only the same dimension of Love can satisfy the spirit and lift the burden away. As this Love is infinite, only infinite Love can satisfy. When a person seeks for this Love anywhere else, the experience always falls short of the mark merely intensifying the need for more Love. Without finding this in God, the growing intensity becomes the great weight upon the spirit that finally crushes it.
God, please meet my need for Love today that my spirit might be free!
-excerpt taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 11-20
Day 3
The Rod of Correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to itself disgraces his mother.
Proverbs 29:15 - Pt 1
Parental love requires correction and guidance to be given a child. When the child fails to receive both the discipline from the parent and the guidance it desperately needs, the child then left to itself will bring disgrace unto his mother. Security is formed in the love relationship between a child and his parent through the means of setting boundaries, clearly defining the boundaries, giving the child the freedom to move back within the boundary should he wander outside the boundary by instructing the child that he is being irresponsible or outside the boundary, and then should the child fail to respond to the instruction, to the warning, and to the encouragement to move back within the boundary, the parent needs to identify that the failure to respond is now one of disobedience and defiance.
When this occurs, parents need to initiate discipline, the rod of correction. This rod of correction must refrain initially from any physical correction, as this needs to be the very last and the most serious of all consequences the child ought to receive. Many consequences prior to this level need to be initiated prior for the rod of correction to be effective. The rod of correction has many variances to its paddle. Sitting on a chair, standing in the corner, or going to one’s room are graduated levels of the rod of correction. Each implementation must have as it goal to turn around the child’s attitude of defiance.
Only in love will the child turn the attitude into willing obedience. Consistency, immediacy, and appropriate consequences for the crime are secret ingredients of parenting. (Word of caution – any parent who was physically abused as a child ought never to physical spank or use a paddle or use any form of physical punishment. Reason – the lines of appropriate consequences were destroyed in their own abusive situations and the tendency will be to go beyond what is appropriate and move into the same abuse.)
-excerpt taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 11-21
Day 4
The Rod of Correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to itself disgraces his mother.
Proverbs 29:15 - Pt 2
When love fails to be integrated into child discipline and instruction, then any discipline or correction will fail its intended purpose within the child of correcting the defiant attitude. Only love can carry the intended purpose of discipline into the heart of the child. Love is the road that discipline needs to travel if it is to have a successful impact on the child’s attitude. It is love that reflects a healthy parental attitude. What attitude the parent has is what the child catches. The rod of correction merely carries an outward behavior of an internal attitude. It is not the outward behavior that makes the difference within the child but rather the attitude of the parent. “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” (Hebrews 12: 5-6) Because God loves us, He disciplines us. The discipline that He initiates is merely the extension of His Love.
But when a child fails to receive correction from his parents based upon love for him, the child is abandoned and will lack ability to establish boundaries he needs to find right direction in life. Rather he will move further and further in every direction of his fancy, seeking any boundaries that may help him to make sense out of life.
And if the child is corrected while the parental attitude is angry or mean, the correction not only will fail to identify the defiance taking place in the will but rather will also attack the spirit of the child, crushing it, bringing it into submission through force. The will of the child will then resist or become passive. In either case, the spirit becomes crushed and the will rebels and becomes more determined, while developing a deep bitterness against any further attempts at similar correction. The child will eventually transfer this parental deficiency to any attempt by God to discipline and will fail to see any benefit in the discipline of God and will have great difficulty trusting the leading of the Holy Spirit. Instead the child will become retarded in personal growth and start to rely upon his own wits in life and in things spiritual. He will thus remain far from the Kingdom of God and His deep abiding peace and joy.
Do you really love me God? You say you do! May I learn to receive your discipline not only with endurance but with gratitude for I believe that your discipline is for my good and to bring me into holiness! Always help me to yield to Your Will.
-excerpt taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 11-21
Day 5
Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger (do not exasperate them to resentment), but rear them (tenderly) in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 (Amplified Bible)
Parents accept great responsibilities when they have a child. One responsibility is to learn the moral code of God and to pass this moral code onto their children through instruction. This instruction goes through the various stages as identified in the Amplified Bible. The training includes discipline and counsel and admonition. Each child needs to experience a consistent implementation of discipline to grasp the critical nature of the absolute character of God, learn how the boundary being applied helps and not hurts. This requires patient counsel of the parent when admonishing regarding the boundary area. The child needs to learn to consider the reasons behind the boundary to understand the Wisdom, which he does not yet possess, which lies inherent within each boundary.
Teaching the child to think critically establishes principles to live by and helps the child attribute value to each of the boundaries. Thus when the child reaches the critical area of integration of values into his own internal value system, the value and reasoning behind each of the boundaries will be clear and will be recognized for its own good to help him achieve his personal goals and freedom.
The parental instruction also needs to explore the various internal experiences of the child and aide the child in becoming familiar with all dimensions within himself, especially the realm of the emotions, which tend to be the most obvious of all experience. Without careful instruction the emotions quickly fall into categories of good and bad, being moralized with only the good sought after while the bad avoided.
This good/bad perspective of emotions quickly creates passive/aggressive thought and behavior whenever a "bad" emotional arises within, neither tendency being healthy for the child. Rather the child needs guidance with each emotion, understanding that emotions are neutral in and of themselves, with each emotion providing an extremely valuable source of personal instruction designed by God to help the individual cope with life and guide him to personal growth and responsibility. The child needs to be taught ownership over his emotions and to recognize how each emotion can assist him in bringing his life into accord with God’s Will. As a parent may teach the child the language of English or Spanish, so it is critical that a parent teach the child the language of the the emotions.
-excerpt taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 11-22
Day 6
Fathers, do not irritate and provoke your children to anger (do not exasperate them to resentment), but rear them (tenderly) in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 (Amplified Bible) - Pt 2
Should a father not become involved with his child regarding the teaching of emotions and leaves the child with a poor understanding of God’s Will for his emotions, appetites, and passions, then these inner experiences will quickly find the path of original sin, the tendency to go against God’s Will. The very design of God for the emotions within the soul of man will have these precious inner experiences diverted instead to defrauding others and fanning lasciviousness within its own self. Wherever the proper parental nurturing fails to instruct these fundamental child experiences, the child will fail to develop proper life direction and will wander lost until he may happen upon the truth.
Even when the child grows up and is lead by God the Father to Jesus and experiences salvation, the childhood tendencies susceptible in each of the areas that were lacking in the parental responsibilities will follow him and act as obstacles in his growth in the relationship with Jesus.
As each of us, to some degree, experience this abandonment through our interaction with our parents, we each need to be aware of the obstacles that are present within our own experience and seek them out. When discovered, these very weaknesses need to be turned over to the Holy Spirit so that through them, He may operate and come more fully into our lives thus turning our weaknesses into our strengths.
-excerpt taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 11-22
Day 7
My Son, keep you father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you, when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the directions of discipline are the way of life. Proverbs 6: 20-23 Pt 1
In the beautiful instruction that Solomon shared with his son, the excellent conclusions of parental instruction in an attitude of love are manifested in the life style experiences of the son as he passes from a child into manhood. These conclusions depend on two ingredients: one, the parents, mother and father, both carry an equal burden of teaching, according to Solomon, to instruct the child in the ways of God; and, second, the child needs to do two things. First, the child needs to bind the teaching deep into his heart and then fasten them around his neck. "Binding the teaching deep into his heart" requires a conscious choice to integrate the teaching as a personal belief that is critical to life itself. "Fastening around his neck" reflects the deeply bound teaching being made manifest into the outward world and thus into all of behavior.
Solomon further deliberates and asserts that these commands will actually guide the child into life, operate and watch over upon him even while he sleeps and allow for the dream experience to bless him; then, while he is awake, the commands will speak with him, interacting at all times within him through his conscience and reasoning, and, as they do so, will provide assurance of the right path to take in life.
Solomon continues to consider the positive impact of both the parents’ teaching and the child’s response and declares that these teachings will act upon the child as a "light to his feet" in the midst of great darkness and "shine a path" to carry him into a successful life. The ways of discipline and correction that the parents initiate externally during youth will be accepted within by the child as a man. The commands and teachings will be a way of life always there to define and give boundaries to all of life.
These are the great blessings of responsible parenting in which the child experiences acceptance, security, and strong nurturing with the gently hand of guidance. The blessings for the parent reward many years of hard work, commitment to the child and participation in the Divine Love of God. The blessings to the child allow for participation in the Love of God, allowing for a deep peace and joy in life.
- taken from the Daily Meditations by Michael Beiring
Day 8
My Son, keep you father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you, when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the directions of discipline are the way of life. Proverbs 6: 20-23 Pt2
How horrible the consequences will be in any child when the parental teachings and commands of God’s Will are not present. Each of the positive experiences, directions, and impacts mentioned in yesterday’s meditation will be missing. Rather the negative opposites will entrench themselves as the normal pattern of life both within the child as an adult and within his actions in life. Everything will be backwards and upside down. Nothing will make much sense to the young man. All ways to the contrary of God’s Will will end up being established as the way life runs. Insights beyond the superficial will be closed to him and every wind of doctrine will whirl around him each sounding better and truer than the one that was just present. Emptiness will flood his inner soul and deep fear will set in about the internal regions of his life forcing him to abandon his own soul and spirit and seek life outside in the highways and byways of the world. As the glitter and initial spurts of pleasure and happiness give way to the consequences of such a life, the impending doom, darkness, and despair of the inner regions will explode into every conscious thought, memory, and emotion. Where to run? How to hide? What will destroy such unwanted pain? which races through and enwraps each moment of the day. Nights become nightmares filled with demons.
Only a redeemer with infinite mercy and compassion can satisfy the soul. Only Jesus can minister a touch of comfort to such a spirit. Only He can make me whole, different, and new. Only He can bring hope and light into my heart. Only He can be my Father and guide me.
- taken from the Daily Meditations by Michael Beiring of 11-26
Day 9
My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble; when you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared. Proverbs 3: 21-26
Sound judgment and discernment assumes a set of principles/values that, when used with reason, will be able to measure a present situation soundly and provide the correct answers or evaluate whether the unfolding event is balanced or askew. The family background provides the material for the building blocks of such principles/values to be integrated into the child’s life. To the degree that the family integrates the absolute values/principles of God’s Word into their life will a child’s ability develop into sound judgment and discernment. The first requirement lies in the parents assuming godly principles/values into their life-style. This requirement insists upon actual life-style and not mere rhetoric where parents say one thing and then do another. Children will only catch the contradiction and then this reality becomes their building block.
Second, the child, usually during the second phase of their development, during teens to early twenties, needs to challenge the external values/principles he has been living with during his previous years and to integrate into his own experience those that are in accord with God’s Will and Word. At times, this phase is very conscious to the child; at other times, it appears dim and unsettled, especially, if any unusual experience or trauma sets in and sidetracks the child.
Solomon, in his admonition to his son in Proverbs, is apparently speaking to a child who is either in his teens or about to enter into his teens. Solomon understands the significant stage his child is about to enter and encourages his child to take hold of the teaching and commands that both he and his son’s mother have past onto him. Unfortunately, for Solomon, his own personal life was ambiguous with the standards he was passing onto his child. Solomon spoke eloquently as a father but lived a life contrary to much of what God’s Word had stated to him. This contradiction between what Solomon told his son and what he lived portrayed itself latter on after his death when his Kingdom was split in two, reflecting the tragedy of such ambiguity.
Though Solomon’s exhortations to his son are very accurate, they truly reflect the importance of a parent’s life being consistent with what they teach; otherwise, there is no authority in what is said and the words spoken merely present contradictions. The true building block they pass onto their child becomes "to speak one thing, but live another." This principle/value lacks sound judgment and will never allow discernment to be exercised in any situation according to God’s Will, for the ambiguity will be the base principle/value.
Because we are all children of parents who have fallen short of the glory of God who have past on their own contradictions down to us, each of us is left to a degree with a lack of sound judgment and discernment. After we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we desperately need to seek the Holy Spirit and beg of Him to help us put aside our contradictions and to develop sound absolute principles/values based upon the Word of God which we may integrate into our lives.
- taken from the Daily Meditations by Michael Beiring
Day 10 Pt 1
My Son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless and he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good truth. Proverbs 2: 1-9
Solomon identifies for his son six important conditions for 6 results of wisdom to become integrated into his life experience. Solomon accepts the limitations of his own parenting ability at this point by identifying the sovereignty of his son’s will in responding to life. Parenting places tremendous responsibility upon the shoulders of the parents but Scripture also identifies the limitations in the formation of the child. Biblical parenting accepts the sovereign domain of the child’s response.
The first condition Solomon identifies is the need for a child to accept the words of his parent. Every child will accept the words that are spoken as authority if the word presented is consistent with a life lived. Word welded together with example equals the only authority that is ever heard by a child. This is one dimension that Solomon failed to grasp himself or at least failed to integrate into his life with his children. The first condition of the child is greatly tempered therefore by the integration of word with life in the present. The word is much easier to be accepted by the child if there is no dichotomy between word and action.
When Solomon identified the need to store up the commands he had given to his son within his son’s heart, he is assuming that teenage transition whereby a child leaves childhood and enters the transition of moving into adulthood. This transition stage is critical in every life and is characterized by the child examining, pondering, challenging each command, principle/value that is given by parents, pulling apart the principle/value to find its worth, and consequently upon discovering its worth, depositing the command and its worth deep within the vault of his own heart. This action is completely dependent upon each child and is the responsibility of each child. This is the most sensitive of all stages in a child’s life and the stage of great spiritual battles. Satan desires nothing more than to disrupt this critical stage by introducing free sex, alcohol, drugs, or other cheap mood altering methods to derail the child’s natural tendency to evaluate and store so that what Solomon is stating as a condition to wisdom never takes place.
Solomon then places within this same need of the child to store up commands, the choice of turning his ear to wisdom. Should the child upon evaluating the principle/value, find the worth, store the command in his heart, then the child will also be making a choice of inclining his ear to wisdom. The inclinations of ear or eye depend greatly upon choices made repeatedly. The natural tendencies of each of us through original sin are to incline our ears and eyes toward what is easiest and most pleasurable without being necessarily the best for us. Actually what is easiest and most pleasurable often leads us to a path of what is the worst for us. So turning our ear, developing an inclination to wisdom results from a series of freely chosen choices of listening only to what is good for us.
- taken from the Daily Meditations by Michael Beiring
Day 11 - Pt 2
My Son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless and he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good truth. Proverbs 2: 1-9 Pt 2
The fourth condition that Solomon points to is the need for his son to apply his heart to understanding. So many times in life a victim mentality develops in a child should the child develop an attitude that "the world owes him something." Another self-defeating attitude is “magical fantasy” - that everything is just going to come his way. Children growing up in alcohol or drug addiction or gambling frequently catch this “magical fantasy” principle/value. But Solomon established the importance of applying the entire strength of life itself – reflected in the imagery of the heart – to understanding what was needed if the results of wisdom were to be experienced. Applying self with abandonment to understanding, in itself, is wisdom in action. However, applying all personal resources to gain such understanding falls entirely in the sovereign choice of each child. This condition separates out the wise child from the foolish child which Proverbs contrasts repeatedly.
Then Solomon captures the true limitations of life and recognizes that even in the midst of all previous 4 conditions being met, that life still presents contradictions so vast and complex that everything within the human experience falls short and the answers and the directions lay mysteriously afar off. The fifth condition authenticates our humanness and God’s divine nature, our finite comprehension of life and God’s omniscience, our finite existence in space and time and God’s omnipresence. The fifth condition accepts humbly the boundaries of our spiritual poverty apart from God. Call out for insight! Cry aloud for understanding!
Insight and understanding are beyond each of us! Before the onslaught of temptation when the rain of the fiery darts of Satan’s forces unleash their attack and the sky is dark with their presence and before suspicions cover the sky like stars, wisdom realizes it must reach beyond all that is and will be known to call out, cry out! No pride is present! Only the fear of God! The fear of losing hold of Him, the fear of being swallowed up by confusion, and the freight of peace and security vanishing can move the child to cast aside any pride of figuring it out alone. Instead, the child’s heart and hand must reach through the fiery darts with the plea of “Help me God!” God responds always for He is Faithful. Paul says that this process develops our character and produces hope. “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5)
Finally, Solomon adds the sixth condition. “Look for it as silver and search for it as for hidden treasure.” “Calling out” and “crying aloud” often time need to pass through different stages; each stage critical in the formation of character, faith, and hope. Jesus would summarize the same condition by admonishing his disciples, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be open to you.” Because God does not immediately reveal the insight or impress the understanding upon our mind immediately, does not mean that our calls and cries have gone unheard. The prayers of a righteous man avail much before the throne of God. Paul states that because we give our hearts to Jesus that we can approach the throne of God with boldness and confidence. God does not respond in our time but rather in His time which always occurs within His Love and within His Vision for us. It is not for us to become frustrated with God’s time but to bend our knee and to remain persistent with perseverance. God’s purpose often times transcends the immediate moment and utilizes the present moment as a refiner’s fire to purify the human character allowing it to be rid of its impurities. When Jesus encountered the Syro-Phoenician woman’s persistency and belief in Him when it appeared that no answer was forthcoming from Him to her pleas, He turned to his disciples and stated that faith such as this woman’s was not found in all of Israel. Such faith comes from such a search with perseverance.
- taken from the Daily Meditations by Michael Beiring
Day 12 Pt 3
My Son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless and he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good truth. Proverbs 2: 1-9
1st of 6 Results
“Then you will understand the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 2:5) is the first of six results of wisdom that impregnates the life of a child when the six previous conditions of Days 10 & 11 are heeded. Solomon fully understands the significance for this result as he previously stated, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Proverbs 1:7) He then would go on to state that “To fear the Lord is to hate evil.” (Proverbs 8:13) The “fear of the Lord” then is contemplated here as being a gift passively infused by God into the soul and spirit of the child in response to the child’s obedience and seeking first after the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. The “fear of the Lord” is a special grace operating within the child to turn him away with hatred from evil. (The Hebrew “fear” is not as concerned with the emotion as it is a life-style of turning away from evil and walking toward God’s goodness and as a result greater and greater distance is placed between the soul and evil.)
This powerful grace establishes within the child a new ability to transcend his original sin tendency toward evil. Without this grace, each child will give way to his original tendency and fall far short of the glory of God. The “fear of the Lord” rejects all tendencies of rationalization that tempts each soul with seeking how close it may cozy up to evil without falling into its traps. Rather the “fear of the Lord” flees “the evil desires of youth, and pursues righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22)
- taken from the Daily Meditations by Michael Beiring of 12-4
Day 13 Pt 4
2nd of 6 Results
“Then you will…find the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:5b) This second result radically departs a child from his childhood perspective of viewing life through natural eyes and transforms his perception through the supernatural eyes of God. Everything assumes a new perspective, one that is divine, and allows for penetration in depth and for expansion in breathe. David meditates, “You commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers for I meditation on your statues. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me.” (Psalms 119: 97-102)
To “find the knowledge of God” lifts the child out of the darkness and transports him into the world of light. Along with this special favor of God comes a new humility filled with compassion and heartache for those still caught up in the darkness. The child quickly grasps that those still in the darkness cannot see what he sees and thus are severely limited and confined within the chains of their darkness. Yet he knows that he can see them, understand them, relate with them, empathize with their circumstances, and that he holds the key they need to escape from their prison. “Ambassadorship” which Paul asserts we are all called to participate in as citizens of the Kingdom of God is dependent upon its awakening in the soul, upon finding this knowledge of God, and the weight of the responsibilities to other people. The weight then compels a soul to reach out and “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 22)
- taken from the Daily Meditations by Michael Beiring
Day 14 Pt 5
3rd of 6 Results
The next three results revolve around spiritual warfare. The first of these promises and the third result is that “victory is in store for the upright.” (verse 7) Paul emphatically asserts the victory of Christ for the believer in Colossians 2: 13-15, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
This powerful victory of Christ was foreseen in reality by Solomon in the discussion he had with his son. He believed on the promises of God that the penalty of sin would be erased from his life should he follow the conditions that God established for him to be faithful. Solomon shared his deep faith in God’s promises and allowed his son to have an insight that only the followers of the true God can experience - a freedom from the bondages of sin, from the written code with its regulations of the sinful tendencies expressing themselves, and the disarming of the spiritual powers which stand opposed to us and desire only our despair.
Solomon understood the difference between those who followed the true God and all others who wandered after false gods and served Satan. All others, even if they were living in the appearance of victory, were only victims of illusion, for their true end was defeat, if not now, then at the gate of death. Paul cried out with this recognition and shouted, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7: 24-25)
-except taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 12-5
Day 15 Pt 6
4th of 6 Results
The power of victory of the child is quickly followed by the next result which states, “He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.” (verse 7b) In Paul’s powerful discussion on spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6, he identifies the shield, “…take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (verse 16) Solomon is not naïve. He apprehended by faith that the victory was for the inner Kingdom of God residing within the heart of man which needed to be won first if God was to have the allegiance of His people when the final outward Kingdom on Earth was established.
Though the victory has been won on the cross of Christ, the outward battle continues to be waged as Satan, along with his evil angels, is still free to roam in the supernatural,. The spiritual battle often is intense for any child growing into adulthood and for all adults who live in a sinful world. Our passions and appetites are continually barraged by “the fiery arrows of the evil one.” The world itself preys upon the innocent passions and appetites of the soul that generally are left unprotected.
Solomon insists that the six conditions that his son needs to accept and incorporate into his life-style will garrison and fortify his passions and appetites to withstand all attacks and fiery arrows of the evil one. “Taking up the shield of faith” appears self-evident as a logical activity that anyone would perform if they were going into warfare. But this self-evident truth is only evident to those who follow the six conditions; otherwise, darkness envelops the self-evident truth and hides it from being seen. The six conditions illuminate the obvious that only the foolish would enter a spiritual life-threatening battle without their shields. The wise will lift their shields proudly and take pride in their defense. The shield is the Lord and every one who lifts this shield can hold their head high for they know their safety is in the Lord, the true God of the battle.
-except taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring
Day 16 Pt 7
5th of 6 Results
The fifth spiritual warfare result is that “he (God) guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.” (verse 8) In the supernatural regions of life God has planned and built a path, a road, a course, that each soul/spirit that He creates must follow if he is to achieve fulfillment according to His purpose and design. Jesus Himself stated that “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (John 14:6) Solomon would strongly encourage his son in Proverbs 4:25-27, “Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” The writer of Psalm 139 wonders, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God? How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand.” (verse 16-18) All these thoughts confirm each other that, in the spiritual dimension of life, there lies a road that I am unable to physically see, but nonetheless exists and can be seen through faith. In Psalm 119:105, the writer states, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” This simple insight allows us to comprehend that the path not only can be seen but the Word of God illuminates the path for the soul and gives the soul vision far enough ahead that at least his feet can see without ever stumbling.
In the Mind of God is a perfect formation of my entire life from the initial conception/creation and point in time into the farthest reaches of eternal infinity. God sees me at each moment. His Hand forms me into the Image of Jesus, never divine, never infinite, never all knowing, never all present, but everywhere along the path, He forms me into His Vision within the confines of my own finite limitations. This is the pleasure of God within my experience wherein He exercise His Almighty capabilities and creativity, always in constant motion, using each second and filling each space with His Divinity, excited always about what He is creating and fashioning, and filled with love as His creation responds willingly to His Hand.
Where such willingness to respond exists, God guards the course for He has established it. Only when the soul chooses to step off the path or is led off the path by a parent whom, for a short period of time in the life of the soul, He has allowed to participate in His Divine experience, does God’s guardianship and protection for the Way of the soul not operate. This is the magnitude of the sin perpetrated upon the child. The child, as a result, may never undertake the adventure of the eternal path God has designed for him. This is the tragedy of childhood abandonment - the child flounders forever in darkness, intuiting a bright future with unlimited potential but never knowing the slightest fruit only the dismal failure of groping and never finding.
God guards the course and protects the way, for a child truly does not, nor can he ever, see the future other than that which is within God’s keeping. Every child must come to trust implicitly that God loves him, knows him better than he knows himself, has a perfect plan that is revealed each day in the moments that follow each other, and will present the ability within the moment to the soul so that it might arise to the challenge and have victory and will proceed successfully to the next step. These are the experiences that God has handed over to each parent to participate in and in doing so reflect Him to the child. When the reflection doesn't exist, the child is left in a vacuum. The trust the child needs to develop in someone outside himself fails to develop. Despite this great vacuum each child has a responsibility to eventually “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3: 5-6). This transition of trust from parent to God runs into a serious obstacle when childhood abandonment is experienced.
-except taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring
Day 17 Pt 8
6th of 6 Results
The last result Solomon identifies for his son is, “Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good truth.” (verse 9) By including the understanding of what is right and just and fair, Solomon affirms the two primary areas of judgment that people use in making decisions. The concept of right and wrong, which he previously claimed for his son as a result of wisdom, he now places within the confines of just and fair. He implies through this placement that his son will be extremely sensitive to all people irregardless of their preferred way and not be blinded by his own natural preferences for making decisions. He implies that his son will have the ability to empathize with another manner of decision making other than his own and have the highest respect for each way.
Solomon preceded modern day insights into decision making by recognizing the two primary motivators that inspire people in their judgments, the motivator of justice and the motivator of fairness. When a child is motivated by justice, the immovable principles of life, hopefully inspired and originating from God Himself, rise in preeminence in making good decisions. The drive of the individual remains steadfast in his search for the immutable principles that are objective to all experience that can stand alone, constant in their application to all circumstances. Emotions here never sway the decision. Principle stands supreme. Law and Order rise to the apex and must be obeyed. Always the search discards principles that are weak and do not stand the test of objectivity and assurance.
The other half of mankind is driven by fairness. The emotional counterpart of life tends to stand out, not because decisions are made in emotion, but due to the nature of this perspective which zeroes in on people, the personal involvement in life, and the importance of subjectivity and the outcome of the good of another. The importance of harmony and peace reign as sovereign. Much of this decision making is based on personal experience, the values inculcated into the belief system, the openness of evaluating what works and what doesn’t work, and the commitment to bring all decisions into a hierarchy of values with Love dominating them all. Thus Love needs to be identified and understood in and through and with God as the definer and the Being of Love. For decisions to be made in fairness, the Heart of God needs to become the person’s heart or otherwise, selfishness tends to influence everything and mix fairness up with what is only best for the person, other times prohibiting the need for sacrifice in order for the good and harmony of all to exist.
Solomon claims that when his son will follow the six conditions, this last result will bring a harmony within this life that will allow him to accept all people and see every good path from both judgment making positions that people take. In childhood abandonment, wrong principles and standards of life overwhelm the child and establish the foundation for rational decision making. In childhood abandonment, self-centeredness, distrust, and relativism form the center of experience and establish the subjective view of life. Wrong principles and tragic experiences forbid the child from ever making fair and just decisions, thus assuring a wrong direction in life.
- taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring
Day 18
“My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble; when you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” Proverbs 3: 21-24
Much of the discussion that Solomon continues to have throughout Proverbs addresses the importance of what his son needs to do to get and maintain wisdom and the results of obedience to simple commands in disciplined consistency. Solomon in Proverbs contrasts the theme of the foolish man versus the wise man in light of having wisdom or not. Solomon was graciously granted wisdom by God to govern the people. This he did throughout his life and the Kingdom of Israel had its greatest expansion, its most notable wealth, its most extensive influence in the world during his reign. Peace appeared almost everywhere and mankind everywhere sought him out and looked to him for leadership. Throughout his years he was able to have clear insight into the foolish man and recognized the ingredients of the wise man. Unfortunately, Solomon was like every other man, dominated by his original sin, given to reliance upon his own self and thus foolishness entered in his own life in spite of the great gift of wisdom imparted to him by God.
Solomon’s insights into the differences of the foolish and wise man are highly instructive and bring forth many excellent contrasts between the experience of abandonment in childhood and the experience of being nurtured. The foolish/wise contrast equals the degree of experience according to the pattern of abandonment/nurturing. Solomon himself grew up in the chaotic family of David and his wives and children. David’s foolish actions reflect a degree of abandonment in the life of Solomon. Only the redemption work of Jesus on the cross can fully integrate healing into the abandonment experience of any person and allow the person through a process to be sanctified, made different, changed radically in all aspects of his nature due to his fallen will, and his distorted patterns of thought and the pain locked around his abandonment experience healed.
Several of the contrasts are simple such as: “Wise man store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.” (Proverbs 10:14) “The lips of the righteous nourish many, but the fools die for lack of judgment.” (10:21) “A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights in wisdom.” (10:23) “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice. A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.” (12: 15-16) When each of these simple contrasts is accumulated into a collection, they provide an excellent overview of the tendencies abandonment instills into our character. Each person, to some degree, as each has fallen short of the glory of God through their own sinfulness, has experienced foolishness as a lifestyle. Very few only experiment with foolishness and quickly flee from its path. Most people need to experience the terrible consequences that rise up through the activities of foolishness.
“I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion…I love those who love me, and those who seek me, find me.” (Proverbs 8: 12, 17)
- taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 12-11
Day 19
A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool. Proverbs 17: 10
As a person moves further and further away from the truth of God’s Word, the more difficult it becomes for the person to respond to normal methods of correction concerning the foolish path that is being traveled. As a matter of fact, the foolish person grows resentful whenever another with wisdom attempts to intervene and reflect the truth of what is taking place within the foolish person’s life. “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.” (Proverbs 9: 7-9)
The further the foolish man finds himself from the true way of God the harder and more difficult will be the method of learning that will need to occur before any recognition may happen. The quiet voice of the Holy Spirit speaking about the difference between right and wrong will have been long quenched with the black waters of repeated sinful choices. The uncomfortable pricks of conscience insisting that my psyche is out of order will be seared and toughened like an old scar. The nudges of guilt and shame will be suppressed, stuffed within prison walls deep inside. As a foolish person moves away from these gentler methods of correction, the voices of people admonishing are heard as bothersome sirens that only warn other people. Thus the harsher ways only remain.
Paul reflects on this in Romans 1: 28, “…Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done.” The writer of Proverbs 20:30 notes that “Blows and wounds cleanse away evil and beatings purge the inmost being.” Both writers observe the most difficult of all ways for any soul to learn about what is wrong. Paul understands this wake-up process for people who will not respond to normal correction and accepts that some souls will not even learn by the difficult way due to the hardness of their heart. And so he instructed the Church in Corinth to “hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 5:5)
We know that often times this process does not even work or otherwise people would not be lost and eventually land in the place of suffering forever. Yet others are wakened through this method as seen in the man Paul had put out of the Church at Corinth who repented, changed, and now was ready to return to the Body of believers by the second letter to Corinth.
Life’s hundred lashes laid upon the fool’s back are painful even for the fool. These lashes were laid upon my life and brought me to my knees. Despair/hope mingled close together; total darkness penetrated by only a small ray of life. The choice remained. Which way to choose? Death or Life? The easy way appeared to be Death! But the reality of being in darkness forever was even more fearful. This could not be accepted. Everything cried out in me for life! And today it still cries out for Life! Now the Holy Spirit teaches gently without a hundred lashes laid on my back. Encouragement always! Thank you God!
- taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring
Day 20
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23
The experience of abandonment in childhood, especially when it is a prolonged experience, and even more especially when it reaches back into the very early years and lasts throughout childhood, fills the heart with intense insecurity, loneliness, emptiness, insignificance, and a darkness that causes instability to all inner reality, leaving a sensation of falling into a black hole which doesn’t appear to have any bottom. Fear and fright, horror and nightmares brew together, fermenting dread of tomorrow.
As a result of this inner life gorging the memory and emotion, the inner world of the heart is a foreboding location to be avoided at all costs. For a person to be told that he must “guard his heart for it is the wellspring of life” is generally more than the person can accept. Instead this statement is viewed with deep suspicion and the messenger’s saneness will be distrusted.
Instead the experience of abandonment causes a person to abandon his heart with its deep pain and travail and deny its existence, laboriously setting about to create daily distractions of any sort to keep the mind dwelling upon the outer world at all cost so that the inner world will not rise to the surface and bring forth more pain. The distractions often create a growing series of difficulties, each more serious and consequential than yesterday’s. Attempting to wrestle any satisfaction from life, the person turns to immediate gratification of any sort, believing that anything is better than nothing or the pain inside, only to find that being immediately satisfied only results in greater pain, as the satisfaction quickly dissipates and vanishes like the mist before the morning sun. This continual exercise in futility will continue endlessly unless something radical intervenes of such magnitude that a paradigm shift in reality can take place. Only God’s grace possesses this inherent power to interweave itself into the person’s life for change.
When abandonment defines the person’s childhood, the concept of "guarding your heart with all of your strength" is a foreign language that makes no sense. Yet each person suffering the pain of abandonment needs to hear the truth that God loves him unconditionally and He will not abandon him and that He desires the allegiance of his heart.
This message must be delivered by a person whose heart is wrapped up in God’s love, reflecting from personal experience the truthful knowledge that once the heart is in God’s Hand, that the heart will be such an actual worthwhile place that one will now desire to guard it with all of one's strength, worthy of such a feat, day in and day out. The peace and meaningfulness that is found in one’s heart then continues to draw the person back again and again to its presence. It becomes a favorite place to travel to, available anytime, anywhere, and in any situation.
The messenger whose heart is wrapped up in God’s love and transmits this deep and abiding life in the Love of God is the only one who can bring this message of hope to those suffering in the pain of abandonment. Only such a heart dwelling in the abiding life of God’s love can inspire a person dwelling in abandonment to come to God and to reenter the reality of his own heart. This messenger is the one to encourage the one abandoned, to stand with him as he painfully and awkwardly make his way through the dread of darkness, to applaud him for his success, and to soothe him when he falls.
Dear God, may You grant us constant grace throughout this day to remain faithful to Your Love in our heart and to be Your ambassador drawing all men to Your Love and Your Life.
- taken from the Daily Meditations of Michael Beiring of 12-13
(This ends our meditations on childhood abandonment)
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