Sunday, August 11, 2013

Thoughts on Abuse

On the way back from Springfield we listened to several talks.  One of them was about abuse.

One thing that struck me about abuse of children is that they think it’s their fault.  They are somehow defective.  So if a parent feels angry and yells at the kids, the kids see that they are flawed and it’s their fault.  The sad thing is this can last their whole lives.  At 80 they will still think there’s something wrong with them because of how they were treated as children.

She also spoke about spiritual abuse.  This is when someone speaks for God unrighteously.  You can tell if it’s unrighteous if the person is not acting as God would act.  All God’s communications are filled with love, kindness, peace, and charity.

The unrighteous person may use guilt, force, embarrassment, or belittling to force their will on another, calling it God’s will.

I thought about someone who may have a parent or leader telling them things they don’t agree with.  Suppose that person goes back to the leader and says, “I don’t agree. I think this.”

How would a Christ-like leader respond? How would God respond?  I think they would say: This is what I think will bring you happiness and these are the reasons why I think you should do it this way.  If you do it your way, these are the consequences I think I think may happen to you.  I love you and want you to be happy.  But you are free to choose. The decision is yours.  And I will love you no matter what you decide to do.

I just appreciated the way to know if you’re receiving spiritual abuse. I also liked the clarity of knowing how a righteous leader would respond.


Just my thoughts.

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