In human life we go through many experiences, some are wonderfully encouraging while others can be decidedly negative. Throughout our lifetime these experiences are deposited into a vault or repository of the soul that is filled with personal memories and accompanied by many of the emotions we felt through those incidents. We draw from this storehouse of memories and emotions in our everyday interactions with others and to a certain extent they make up who we are and what we believe about ourselves and the world in general.
Thankfully it is possible to selectively choose much of what goes into this vault and thereby build up a stronghold of positive memories and emotions from which to draw upon in life.
It is empowering to realise that what we allow to be placed in the vault is what comes out of the vault. Someone somewhere coined the phrase GIGO Good In, Good Out or alternately Garbage In, Garbage Out.
It is therefore incredibly important to place a mental guard over the door to and screen everything that is seeking entrance into our soul.
If we could place all our positive and negative memories and emotions on a balance scale I wonder in which direction they would tip? Would all the positive experiences of our life tip the balance toward the good or have the negative experiences we have faced forced the balance down toward the bad side? Unfortunately, in many instances it is the memory of the bad experiences we have faced that seem at times to take precedence in our hearts and weigh us down mentally and emotionally.
How wonderful it would be if we could go into the vault and clean out the bad experiences and their effects upon us. If only we could get a fresh start and begin to replace them with experiences and emotions that would only benefit our lives.
What a relief it would be if we could get out from under the weight of our disappointments, our failures and shame or our grief and fears, and walk free from those memories that have held us prisoner for so long. Well the good news is that to a large extent you can!
The answer however is not merely mental or emotional but based in an area that overrides and governs these aspects of life. The area I speak of is the spiritual aspect of our humanity, and it is within this area that we will find the freedom we long for. It is freedom that is not found by hiding away in a cave and chanting mantras, or by finding some celestial plain of peace through meditation for each of these pursuits are still based in human endeavour and therefore ultimately destined for failure.
The answer is found in a personal relationship with our Creator and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Only the One who made us truly knows how to fix us when we are broken. To some extent every negative experience we have gone through in life has brought a degree of brokenness or emotional damage into our lives. To be set free from our past we need to have our hearts transformed and renewed by allowing God our Creator to also become God our Saviour.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Being born again involves allowing God our Creator to be the Ruler and Saviour of your life and is accessed by believing in the resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus rose from the dead having conquered even ‘death’ itself and offers a new life to all who believe in and are willing to follow Him.
When we are born again God’s Holy Spirit enters our lives and takes away the power or hold that those negative experiences had upon our lives. Jesus willing sacrifice on the cross paid the price for our sins and our shame, and by believing in Him we receive God’s forgiveness.
The new life that begins is the most wonderful adventure, an adventure that is filled with life changing experiences and the blessing of enjoying eternity in Heaven with Him. Christian parenting is enabled through the daily reading of God's Words in the Bible and applying them in family life.
Developing a relationship with Jesus Christ is done through daily prayer and study of His Word as written in The Bible. Through the Bible we begin to understand what life was truly meant to be and still can be within the blessing of living in God’s will for our lives.
Bit by bit, day by day we begin to restock the repository of our life and are enabled then to live out of the new experiences and beliefs that come through knowing Jesus Christ.
Christian parenting grows considerably easier the closer we get to God in our personal relationship.
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