REAL PARENTS!--DECISIONS!--CHILDREN & CHOICE!    3/85     DO 2060

         1. I'VE SEEN SOME MOVIES LATELY ABOUT CHILDREN WHO WERE ADOPTED & DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE ADOPTED, & then they're so shocked & horrified & in great despair because they find out that the parents who reared them from babyhood or childhood & who they always thought were their so-called "real" parents, flesh parents, suddenly they found out they weren't & they just go into a tailspin! Isn't that ridiculous?
         2. WHO ARE YOUR REAL PARENTS?--THE ONES WHO ACT LIKE REAL PARENTS OUGHTTA ACT!--The ones who love you & take care of you & act as mother & father to you, they're the ones who are your real parents! Just the fact that somebody had you as a baby & then father or mother or both abandoned you doesn't mean a thing! So what? Why should people like that get all upset? There are some people who go into a great lifelong search trying to find their original parents, who apparently didn't even want them in the first place! Why should they want to find them? Forget'm, for goodness sake!
         3. I DON'T AGREE WITH THIS BUSINESS OF CREATING SUCH A FUROR & BEING IN SUCH SHOCK AT FINDING OUT YOU'RE ADOPTED! YOU OUGHT TO BE SO THANKFUL YOU'RE ADOPTED! Your original parents didn't have any choice in the matter, they just had you, that was all. But adopted parents made a choice! They chose to have you, they wanted to have you, & they took you & they had you & took care of you all your life! Your real father & mother are the ones who really love you & really take care of you! That's your real father & mother!
         4. NEARLY ALL OF US HAVE HAD TO OVERCOME HANDICAPS WHICH ARE A RESULT OF OUR PARENTS OR THEIR PARENTS BEFORE THEM, BELIEVE IT OR NOT! You have inherited certain weaknesses or certain failings or certain personality traits or characteristics, some of which you don't like & which are not good that you got from your folks, believe it or not, some of it through natural genes of heredity. That means getting certain characteristics in the way you look, etc., that you get from your flesh parents. But you also inherit certain personality characteristics, they call them gene traits, etc., so that you're inclined to sometimes even have the same expressions or gestures or personality characteristics, all kinds of things, like your parents.
         5. SOME PEOPLE GO AROUND USING THEIR PARENTS AS AN EXCUSE FOR THE WAY THEY ARE & THINK THEY CAN JUST GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING, BECOME CRIMINALS OR ANYTHING: "Well, it's not my fault, it was my parents' fault!" And the next step, of course, is to say, "It's not my fault! Why me? It's God's fault!" Isn't that horrible? That's a kind of predestinarianism, a sort of a fatalism, that you're not to blame, you had no choice in it, you had nothing to do with it, it's all God's & your parents' fault! Isn't that ridiculous?
         6. GOD PUTS YOU HERE WITH A MIND TO MAKE A CHOICE, TO BE A FREE MORAL AGENT, WHICH MEANS TO HAVE FREEDOM OF CHOICE LIKE ADAM & EVE IN THE GARDEN. Did Adam & Eve in the Garden have to go eat of the forbidden fruit? Did anybody compel them to do it?--No! You say, "Well, didn't the Devil compel'm?" No, he didn't compel'm, he just persuaded'm. He just gave them a bill of goods, a bunch of lies that they believed instead of believing the Lord. But they had a choice, they didn't have to believe the Devil. They should have believed the Lord! But with their free will & choice they chose to believe Satan instead of God! Nobody made them, they didn't have to, & don't give me any of that stuff about any of you!: "Well, I'm just that way, that's just me, I can't help it. My Dad was that way or my Mother was that way & it's just born in me, I just can't overcome it, I've got that weakness, that personality trait, it's my star sign, sun sign" blah blah! Phooey! It's not so!
         7. GOD PUT YOU HERE TO MAKE A CHOICE, & THE CHOICE IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU! Nobody makes you do this or that, except maybe your parents when you were little, but even then we give you lots of choices, don't we, children? You say, "What shall I do?" And a lot of times we say, "Well, what would you like to do? It's up to you. We'll leave this decision up to you." I believe in helping children to make decisions early in life, because that's what life is all about! It's like my Mother used to say, "Decisions, decisions, decisions! It seems like life is nothing but decisions!"--And that's exactly right. That's what you're here for, to make decisions, that's exactly what life is all about. But you can make those decisions, & you don't have to make it one way or the other.
         8. YOU HAVE WHAT I'VE OFTEN CALLED THE MAJESTY OF CHOICE, FREE WILL & CHOICE TO DO AS YOU PLEASE! You can be like that dumb heathen in that poem "Invictus" who said, "My head is bloody but unbowed!" What a fool, what an idiot! The picture is of somebody who'd rather stand there with God beating'm over the head with a club until they're bloody, but they're still not going to bow their head! But the fact of the matter is, God doesn't stand there beating you over the head with a club until you're bloody to try to get you to make the right choice, He tries to persuade you. God uses love & persuasion & wisdom & truth to try to persuade you, like your parents do, because they love you. They try to get you to make the right choice.
         9. WE OFTEN TELL OUR CHILDREN, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU OUGHT TO DO? You know what's right & wrong, you know what God's will is, you know what God's Word says, it's up to you! You know what's best, you know what's right, what do you think you ought to do?" And the earlier they learn to make those decisions on their own, & the right decisions, the better! Most young people of the World & the System don't get to that point to where they become their own judge & make their own decisions until they're teenagers! Our children have already made'm & have already made most of the right decisions at an early age, beginning with accepting Christ when they're about two. And once they've given their life, their mind & their heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, from then on they're bound to make nearly all the right decisions, because they are guided by His Spirit. Our children learn very early to make the right decisions & are continually making decisions & the right decisions, thank the Lord! Isn't that wonderful?


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