Delta Dawn When the Light Comes on With  Ivy Joy Johnson

“Foolishness is born in the heart of a child [therefore] train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:15. 7. Mental health starts with learned behavior (Cultural responses). Intellectual input forms a frame of reference for some 167,000 individual daily decisions.

One and one is two. Apples are not oranges. Lions roar, cats purr. Scrapes need Band-aids. ‘Spurty’ wounds need stiches. Intellect soaks up knowledge until about age 6 when attending school begins re-teaching us to be selective about how we receive, sort and recall facts and use abilities. Responding with the right answer at the correct moment deems one ‘smart’.  When approved, we repeat the behavior, even if the behavior ‘dumbs down’ the spirit within us.

A parent’s role is vital to youthful understanding, for while we ‘grow up’ physically, becoming adult in understanding takes stimuli from eyes and ears to be sifted through a filter of associated psychology, intelligence, emotional coping devices and social connections (p.i.e.s). Learned responses influence our thoughts, causing us to SAY words which direct our behavior, which will then, define our destiny,

Tiny word wirings will trip one up. “You are snared [taken] by the words of your mouth.” Proverbs 6:2 Intellect defies God with phrases like “Yeah, but…” “Well, I…” and “What if?” These words place personal experience before God’s direction, wisdom, protection and provision. God did not forget to consider every detail, nor is our experience, usually, what God ordained. But. His hand is stretched out still!

Nurture and admonition of the Lord is essential to mind development. Love and encouragement must be part of one’s upbringing lest satan get his hooks into any reasoning of what makes up justice. Satan may assure us we’re smart and wise, but we are never smarter than God. Wise decisions come from surveying options and making wise choices, based, not so much on the five physical senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell, but on the Word of God and the examples Jesus taught and displayed. Think of this: Are you in the right place at the right time doing the right thing with the right people?

Generational curses are spoken of in families. No addictive behavior will ‘skip a generation’. It will, simply, be coped with under a different framework of understanding. Poor families stay poor because they do not embrace prosperity.  Deuteronomy 5:9, 10. Jesus’ Blood brings abundance. John 10:10. The good news is, Father has an escape plan that overcomes dysfunctional upbringing in about seven years! “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man, but God is faithful Who will not cause you to be tempted above what you are able to bear, but will, also, make a way of escape.” I Corinthians 10:13 “And they overcame by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony and did not love their old life [to die in it].” Revelation 12:11

Next Week: Smoke Alarm