The Blog
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A week and a half ago, I went to my church’s monthly prayer meeting. When the meeting ended, and as I walking out to leave, one of the pastors caught me and said, “I’ll walk you out.” As we neared the door, he said, “I was looking out across the room, and when I saw you, God told me to ask you this question: ‘What do you want?”’
I froze...
In the Bible, the parent/child relationship is one of the most pervasive metaphors used for how God relates to his people.
Like a parent, God sets limits. He puts boundaries in place for our own protection. He makes his expectations known. He voices his instructions.
Like a parent, when God speaks, he expects to be obeyed...
In child development and developmental psychology, mirroring is the process by which a caregiver reflects back to a child their worth, value, and specialness. It’s a validating process. It recognizes a child’s emotions and feelings, and in so doing, validates their being and personhood. The overwhelming experience of joy, love, and affection present in the parent's gaze is beamed directly into the infant's or child’s eyes. Essentially, this gaze conveys, “you’re worthy just because of who you are.”
Mirroring plays a significant role in the development of self-worth, self-esteem, and self-concept. Children need to be admired, they need to feel their mother and father’s excitement and joy. When a child fails to receive mirroring, s/he “struggles to establish a sufficiently cohesive and enduring self.”*
We recently discussed this concept in the early childhood development class I teach...
This morning in prayer, I had a vision in which I was sitting in front of a blank canvas...
In 1 Samuel 15, Samuel (Israel’s great judge and prophet) confronts Saul (Israel’s first king), for his disobedience to the Lord. In verse 3, God explicitly tells Saul to attack the Amalekites (a tribal people, descended from Amalek, who resided south of Judah), and utterly destroy them, leaving no man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel or donkey.
Saul disobeys...
