MAMA'S TALK TO DAVID & TECHI ON DAYDREAMING!              6/86
--Maria Letter No.49

         1. ISN'T THAT A GOOD PICTURE THE LORD GAVE US ABOUT DAYDREAMING?--How when you daydream, it's just as if your mind is out playing, out doing its own thing, wandering off on its own, doing whatever it wants to do! So how is it going to be any use to the Lord that way? How are you going to be part of the army for the Lord if your mind & thoughts are not controlled or disciplined? Do you know what your mind will grow up being like?--Just like your body or your whole self will be like if it doesn't get disciplined.
         2. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU GREW UP WITHOUT EVER BEING PUNISHED OR DISCIPLINED OR CORRECTED? (Techi: I would be like Hell!) That's right, you'd be spoiled, terrible, brats. Just like Grandpa said in that Letter (No.1512), you'd be a little teen terror! Nobody would like you, nobody could get along with you, you'd hardly even like yourself! You'd get away with all kinds of bad behaviour & nobody would correct you!
         3. WELL THAT'S HOW YOUR MIND IS GOING TO BE UNLESS IT'S CORRECTED! Your mind is going to grow up to be a spoiled brat, if it doesn't get trained & properly disciplined--if it just does whatever it wants to do, just wandering off & breaking all the rules, just getting itself into trouble thinking about all kinds of things it shouldn't even be thinking about, & wasting all kinds of time, not redeeming the time at all. Your mind's going to be just like bad System kids we've seen before on video talking foolishly to each other or not working at all to help their parents. That's how your mind would be without being disciplined & trained, see?
         4. SO JUST LIKE IF YOUR BODY & BEHAVIOUR ARE NOT CORRECTED & DISCIPLINED & CONTROLLED, & TURN OUT BAD, IN THE SAME WAY YOUR MIND IS GOING TO GROW UP to be naughty & rebellious & disobedient too! You know how the Bible says, "Bringing every thought into captivity." (2Cor.10:5)--That's what happens when you're disciplined. When somebody says, "Techi, you come in here now & get your work done & stop playing around!", they're capturing you, "bringing you into captivity", right? It would be like taking a little wild animal out of the jungle & bringing it inside & putting it in a cage & saying, "Now you stay here & be good!" That's what capturing is, that's what captivity means. That's what people do to capture wild animals. Even the children of Israel in the Bible were in captivity, they were captured or "taken captive" by their enemies & taken away & put in a place where they couldn't leave & were made to work very hard.
         5. SO YOU HAVE TO ASK JESUS TO HELP YOU CONTROL YOUR MIND & BRING EVERY THOUGHT INTO CAPTIVITY. David got a lot of good victories when he had prayer against daydreaming & now he can concentrate so much better. Do you see, Techi, how first thing in the morning he gets his Word project out & he really gets into it & studies? We've learned you have to really pray because it's a fight to get into a good habit every time you want to look out the window or think about something else. You have to say to your mind, "Mind, come back here & behave yourself & look at what you're supposed to be doing!" You have to think about it, & concentrate, right?
         6. WE HAVE TO RESIST IT & FIGHT IT & TRAIN OUR MINDS TO OBEY! See, the first time Techi read her Daily Might, she didn't even know what in the world she'd just read! But when you went back & read it the second time, you really concentrated, didn't you? You really studied it & looked to see what it said, & when I asked you if you could summarise what it said, then you were able to tell me. So that first time was the little spoiled brat mind, not obeying, wasn't it? Your mind wasn't controlled or disciplined, but then when you gave it a good spanking & you said, "Mind, now look at what you are supposed to be doing & listen to what you are doing & get back here & obey," then when you read your Daily Might the second time, you knew what it was saying to you, right? You had to bring every little thought into captivity to obey & concentrate.
         7. SO YOU MUST LEARN TO REALLY CONCENTRATE & PRAY & ASK JESUS TO HELP YOU, Techi. A lot of adults in our Family were the same way all their lives before they joined the Family, until they were 17, 18, 19 or 20 years old! Even when they were in school or college they were supposed to be studying, but they had formed a bad habit of daydreaming, & letting their minds wander. Many adults have suffered for so many years from letting their minds wander & just wasted so much time & gotten into such a bad habit that it's very hard for them to get rid of it now! But you children don't want to be like that, do you?
         8. YOU WANT TO START GETTING THE VICTORY NOW & FIGHT ANY BAD HABITS & HAVE A HEAD START, because we don't have that much time left in this life! Children have a big temptation to get into daydreaming a lot because they often have free time. That's one good thing about System school, you have to sit & work & concentrate hour after hour & you know afterwards you'll have a test. So System school can be good in some ways because at least it disciplines you, it makes you study & think & look at what you're doing because you sure don't want to fail your tests & classes that school year, because then all your classmates would go on to the next grade but you'd have to stay behind & repeat the same tests & classes again! Students in System school have to really work at their studies & lessons or they fail!
         9. THAT'S WHY TESTS ARE GOOD FOR YOU, BECAUSE THEY MAKE YOU CONCENTRATE & STUDY & discipline your mind to think! Maybe we should have more tests! Maybe that will help you to buckle down & try harder! Sometimes we can have verbal tests, like the way you told me what you'd read & answered the questions I asked you about what you were reading. Your workbooks are sort of like that too, they make you think about what you've read & then write it down. They make you concentrate because you have to get an answer & write it in the blank.
         10. ARE YOU CHILDREN NOW GOING TO TRY TO SAY, "MIND, I'M GOING TO DISCIPLINE YOU today & you're not going to run off doing whatever you please & go out & play in the yard when you're supposed to be working. You're going to sit right here & concentrate & work!" OK, then let's pray & ask the Lord to help you! I'll pray, but you be sure to listen & pray along.
         11. IN JESUS' NAME, LORD, BLESS THESE SWEET PRECIOUS CHILDREN THAT ARE YOURS & TRYING TO BE YIELDED & obedient to Your will. They've been such a blessing, Lord to us & to so many. Bless them & help them as they read Thy Word to bring every thought into captivity! We really ask You to help them, Jesus, so they can redeem the time, so they can get what You have for them out of Your Word, instead of letting their minds go out & play when You're trying to talk to them! Help them to tell their mind, "Now, Mind, I just rebuke this daydreaming in Jesus' name! I resist all these other thoughts & other activities. Please help me to concentrate on Your Word without getting distracted, Lord". Lord, help them to make it a good habit no matter how often they have to say that, no matter how often they have to pull their minds back, to just keep doing it, Lord, then they'll form a good habit, where after a while they won't have to keep doing it so often any more & they'll start being able to concentrate & study & not get distracted so easily.
         12. SO HELP THEM TO REALISE HOW IMPORTANT IT IS, Lord, that they discipline their minds. Just like if they were taking care of Mary Dear.--She's at the age where you have to discipline her & help teach her in every way to know what to do & how to do it. Help them to realise their mind is like their own little baby & they have to raise it the right way as it grows & discipline it or they'll be a delinquent parent! Please help them to really try & really fight to control every thought, Lord, & to ask You to help them to know what to do & how to do it, so their mind isn't always playing around & wandering off on its own, but is doing really important things & obeying & concentrating on Your Word!
         13. HELP THEM TO KNOW THAT THEY DO HAVE A BABY, their little mind that they have to grow up, & they have to train & control & discipline & tell it what to do. Help the children to do that, Lord, & that will show they're good parents & they're not delinquent & then they can be trusted with more responsibility & even the care of other real children, Lord. So help them to treat their little mind like a little child that has to be disciplined, because it won't do it unless they teach it & help it, Lord. You help them to do that, in Jesus' name.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family