stormy612

I've always known God existed somehow. But the God that was preached to me as I grew up was one that was horribly frightening, judgemental, and condemning. When I was ten, at a church camp, the counselor terrified me with tales of what hell was like. I was so disturbed I just HAD to get saved. I prayed, felt relief, but not peace. I didn't like having to worship a god like that. I wanted a god who would comfort me and make me feel safe and loved. I had enough of yelling, screaming, violence, and condemnation (both of myself, my family, and everyone else in the world) in my own home. Why would I worship a god who did the same thing? I wouldn't. So, for years I went my own way, hunting for peace in all kinds of people. I only got more of the same. What was 'love' anyways? And why did it always hurt? Surely love had to be good because when I thought about love, I felt happy. There were good things in the world. These things had to come from somewhere, right? I knew goodness was out there, but I seemed outside of it all, like I wasn't allowed to touch it. God stuck with me though and kept revealing Himself to me in little ways that were undeniable. For example, I had a question running around in my mind about God. At the mall, a couple of days later, a track from a church was laid in my hand. Bam! The answer was right there in front of me! I knew God was listening to me then. Still, love? I didn't know what it meant because what I wanted was not what I was experiencing. I had never felt love. Gazing in love at my brand new baby girl, really feeling love for the very first time in my life, the love I've always dreamed of, God whispered, "That's how I love you." I then knew I had found God, the real one and He was all I could've wanted! I ran to Him with a hunger and thirst I'd never experienced before. And I was laughing in joy the whole time. Since then, God has amazed me more and more, and my hunger and thirst for Him has grown and continues to grow. So, I echo what a lot have said here-it's personal with Him. He really does want a one-on-one with you. Your seeking Him and He honors that. He's guiding you right now to the place where you two will meet. Let us know when it happens!

Hi everyone. Thank you so much. I'll be checking all of these references out. Perhaps we can keep this thread going to help the 'babes' in Christ or point others to this thread if they need help too. God bless you all!

To Xan and Nicole W. Thank you for your insights and references. I read the article and it certainly did give me some perspective on things. Understanding the orginal Hebrew and Greek helps me see God's intentions, which, to me, falls right in line with who I know God to be. Jesus knows I'm struggling with this, so I thank you for offering this and your knowledge and your heart. I feel a bit more at peace.

Heaven's no! Right now, my husband is in prison. He's in there for 30 years, with probation for the next 20 years after that. He won't be completely free of the law until he's 84. For now, she is safe from him, but her safety is one of the questions I struggle with the most. Could I ever live with him again? Sometimes I think that I need to divorce him, separate myself from him in that way, but continue to love him in the way a friend would. What kind of intimate relationship could he and I have? Trust? And I wouldn't call what we have now a 'marriage'. Sometimes I think he divorced me with his act, and that I just need to take it to court to complete it legally. It's just hard. I want God to come and say "Yes, you have my permission to divorce him," or "No." This is such a huge decision and it impacts so many people. I just want to be right with God. Prayerfully, God will open his heart and soften his heart so that when he comes out, he'll be a good person to be around, married or not. But he could also be that much more dangerous. That is why I feel helpless. I can't know. I have to trust God. I haven't decided anything yet, Jesus and I are just walking real slow on this one.

As of this moment, I have: King James Version-Study Bible New International Version Bible Revised Standard Version Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (can't live without that!) Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary-of Old and New Testament Words Can anyone suggest any other works that will help? Hebrew translations? Greek and Aramaic? etc? I'd also like something to help me understand the cultural history of the times so various references can be better understood (for example: Jesus told the disciples to look for the man carrying the water jar, that he would show them where they would hold Passover. It is my understanding that men never carried water jars, only women did.) Thank you in advance!

This is actually a question I've been asking God about for the last six years. My situation: Six years ago, my husband molested my daughter. According to scripture, I can divorce him. In wanting to obey God and not doing something that will cause further damage, I have hesitated in getting a legal divorce from him. I am waiting for God to say "Yes" or "No". He hasn't yet. Instead, He keeps asking me what do I want to do. Until I know my own heart, I cannot know if my decision is in line with God's heart or not. Until God and I are in agreement, I won't take a step that I cannot know the future consequences of. Before his sentencing, I decided to write a letter to him, not to send, only to put my emotions on paper to get them out of me. While writing this letter, I felt God's hand of conviction-but not where I expected it. There is some history here, but I'll be brief. My daughter is not the biological child of my husband. Before we were married, he and I dated for about six years. Feeling lonely, I turned to another guy who turned out to be abusive. I got pregnant in the process of trying to get out of the relationship with my head still intact. Once pregnant, I simply vanished, scared for the baby in me. My husband, even after what I did to him, chose to marry me and be the father to my daughter. He covered us, even if he wasn't aware of what he was doing. It was such a gracious and merciful act! I understand better now how God's love covers our sin. When I married him, I meant "Til death do us part". I chose him as my husband, and I chose to remain faithful to him until death. After what he did, how could I? So, during the letter, God reminded me of his decision to cover my sin. That is what convicted me. How could I, in good conscience, not do the same for him? Is his situation not worse than mine was? Is his sin any greater than mine? What covers all sin? Love. God has not abandoned him. And in my heart, I can't either. If he ever needed love, he needs it now. If he ever needed an example of true forgiveness, he needs it now. I want so much to be like Jesus. Jesus has never left me no matter what I've done and will trip up and do in the future. All I can do is what Jesus did for me. But it doesn't come without some trepidation, consequences, and serious questions. There are many who don't understand my reason for staying married and will slander me, thinking I'm as insane as he is. There are practical reasons for getting divorced too, all of which makes perfect sense. And then there is my daughter. Will she hate me for not divorcing the man who did such a thing to her? Will she listen to my reason and understand the love of God? I'm tearing up as I write this because this hurts so much. I want so much for God's love of us to be seen, but I will pay for it. I want God's will to be done. Jesus died for me. His love for me took Him to the cross. He paid for loving us too. Jesus loves my husband. All I can do is what I see Jesus doing. All I can do is lay before God, helpless and trusting that God's will be done.

This is such an excellent question, and I don't have anything specific to answer with, except for a short story. I wasn't born and raised anything. My mom took me to a couple of Babtist churches when I was young (eight or nine). I didn't care for the "hell fire and damnation" sermons and I didn't like the preacher yelling. (I'm not accusing all Babtists churches of this, just those my mom took me to at the time.) When my dad got custody of us, we attended my step-mother's Methodist church. Even at the age of 10 or so, I enjoyed listening to the sermon, but they never lasted long enough. A few experiences occured that made me question the authenticity of the believers (again, not accusing Methodists). So, when I had my daughter and wanted to attend church, I struggled with where we would go. We visted a Methodist church and it felt hollow. My husband suggested an Assembly of God where he had attended a few times as a kid. I agreed, but freaked out at the first sermon! People shouting during the sermon, talking in 'tongues', and then the 'falling out in the Spirit". I was adament (sp?). We were NOT going to this church. I wanted to leave as soon as the service was over, but my husband agreed to go to the lunch being served. While standing in line, I begged God to help me. He gently reminded me of our study of submitting to your husband. Seeing that God said to submit, I did. I trusted God through my husband's decision. I met with people who were truly open to learning everything about God as I was, and never tried to talk me out of what I knew to be true of God. I received real wisdom during my time there through these people. I hope I was able to give just as much. Not everyone was great, and in the end, during the worst moment of my life, those whom I had come to trust, abandoned me and my daughter. It's okay. I grew that much stronger and wiser thanks to God's faithfulness. I also learned that denominations have nothing to do with it. It's the people. Trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He knows where you need to be.

Even though this was posted back in 2005, I had to respond. I am so grateful that I am not alone!!! You are the first people that has spoken and agreed with what God has put and kept in my heart for the last 8 years or so. I've been seen as borderline fanatical. I've been walking alone in this for so long! Eight years ago, God brought me to the verses about people being deceived and their love growing cold, and He asked me who Jesus was talking to. In that neat way God has about Him, I understood instantly what He meant: Jesus was talking to believers. He was warning believers about believers! Jesus wasn't warning His disciples about non-believers- they are already deceived. Why would Jesus need to warn His disciples about them? Jesus was warning them about those in the church! I grew up having a few experiences with God that were very real to me; I thought pastors and teachers and other Christians would be thrilled. None of them were. All of them thought I was over-emotional or something and wrote me off. Therefore, I grew up being cautious about churches and what they speak on. My relationship with God is THE most important thing to me and I guard it as carefully as I can (I thank God He's watching over me! Lord knows I can't do this as well as He can!). I am not worried about being led astray by the non-believer, but by those who are more knowledgeable than I am. I question EVERYTHING I am taught, even by the 'elders' of the church, and I listen to none but the Holy Spirit. I recognize His voice so I am at peace that He will keep me from snares and traps. I'm not worried about me (although I still keep a watchful eye out for that nasty lion prowling around); it's the people Jesus cares so much for that can and will be deceived. God has given me many verses but I wanted to share these two verses Jesus has given me: 2 Kings 18:31-32 31: "Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says:Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!" God was showing me the deception of Satan, just how subtle it is. I don't want to live in a land like my own; I want to live in land God has given me. So I have to ask myself now, is this the original? or a copy? Matthew 24:45 "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?..." I know God has a purpose in showing us all these things. There are those He calls to teach and those who are be taught by those called to teach. Neither is greater than the other for both shall receive that which is given by God. But since God has shown me these things, I am accountable for it. God is giving me the food to feed at the proper time. When is that? "The time is coming and now is..." I just wanted to let you all know that I am very grateful for this post and to God for bringing me here to see it. I don't feel so alone, and I am encouraged by your courage. If any of you have any advice on how to speak to believers about this without them growing defensive, argumentative and turning away, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thank you again for your help. My concern is for those who would fall away because of their perceptions of me. I can't just go along doing things without thought to how it affects those who are watching. At the same time, Jesus said that if we are to judge, judge righteously. The only righteous judgement is God's so I need His eyes to see. Jesus never once changed His position on things. He stood on God the entire time He was here. Jesus also emptied Himself completely so that He could be filled with God completely. I guess I just wonder how Jesus was able to stand so strong in the face of so many people with differing perspectives and needs. When I was 14, I was suicidal. I felt extremely alone in the world. God was with me, but I didn't know it. Still, He reached out to me and gave me something I needed and would accept at that time. Most Christians today would argue that God wouldn't have given me this because it is totally secular and that it was Satan tempting me away from God. No. Satan wanted me to die; God didn't. But God knew I wouldn't accept Him or anything from Him at that time, even though He knew I needed Him more than anything else. So, He gave me what I would accept and saved my life. I no longer need this anymore because I have God totally and completely. I thank Him for His gift, and His willingness to come to me when I needed Him in the form I needed. It was a substitute, yes. But little by little, He revealed Himself to me until the substitute was worthless to me. This gift was my best friend and I no longer felt so all alone. I give God the glory for this 'secular' gift. He gave me life through it. God created it, Satan perverted it, God restored it for my benefit. I'm His now. I'd like to be like God in that way and not take something from someone when God can use that something to bring someone to Him. If I condemn something as being 'not of God', I am taking it from that person and giving them reason to hate God. I'd rather them come to see the glory of God through this "thing" and let them let it go when the time is right. I trust God to wean this person off of their 'security blanket' and come to the full knowledge of Him, but only if I follow His righteousness. Somehow, Jesus knew that perfect balance. I just want to know it too.

I'm glad God is letting us know so we can be of service to those who will be disappointed by this church. Praise the Lord there is a site like this and people who like to keep us informed!

I do happen to think something is coming and it is to purify the church. The things that are coming are going to test the faith of all Christians. I also happen to think that the testing has already begun. I went through my first fire six years ago. Those of us with strong faith need to be with those whose faith is challenged and remind them that at the end of it all, they will be the purest of gold, fit to do what it is God will have us do at the end of the trial.

Ezekiel 33:7-9 7: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 8: When I say the wicked, "O wicked man, you will surely di,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin and I will hod you accountable for his blood. 9: But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself. I write this believing firmly that we have a responsiblity with what God has taught us. We are not responsible for the actions of others, only with that which God has given us. You have knowledge of salvation and Jesus has commanded us to bring this good news to the people of the world. You are sharing this knowledge and your faith with your family. Be at peace, you are following the prompting of the Spirit and God is well pleased. 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 5: What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6: I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7: So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8: The man who plants and the man who wters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded accordingto his own labor. 9: For we are God's fellow worker; you are God's field, God's building. Remember who our life-giver is and do not take on more that what God has given us to do and to be for the world. You have been given seed. You are to plant the seed (by actions, by listening as a good friend, quoting the bible, etc.) keeping true to God's will) and be at peace that your heart is right with God and towards your family. Also, ask God to open your heart to hearts of your family. I can't know people like God can so I need His eyes to see a way to approach someone in a manner that they need to hear. I asked God to help me understand my step-mother, who is a 'head-christian'. He gave me some insight into those things that she fears to let go of. It broke my heart, but I knew at that moment I had to be very careful of what I say to her. For myself, I'm not wise enough yet. Still I trust God to guide my tongue concerning her, praying that He will fill my mouth with the words she needs to hear from Him, those words that will specifically touch her heart. God will do the same for your husband and son. Your desire for them is true and pure and the same as God's. You are blessed! As for my step-mother, I've seen little hints here and there that something new is stirring in her. I can also see the signs of fear and resistance. God is working in her. I just have to be patient.

In the posts concerning the games of D&D and Monopoly, the verse about the 'appearance of evil' was quoted several times, along with the verse concerning us causing others to stumble. I do understand that as far as my behavior and words are concerned, I am to do and say as God and Jesus have done and said. I do not question God's command as far as this is concerned. But...mankind judges based on his experiences and perceptions. Paul gave an example of one man who eats meat and his conscience is clean and another who doesn't who feels the same way, but both could easily judge the other as wrong. Paul specifically says not to do this because both eat for the glory of God and to judge each other would cause the other to stumble. I can only do what I know in my heart God has approved of, but I find (more often than not) that many many Christians perceive my words or actions as wrong! And they usually have some biblical reference to back it up. I am not so proud that I will not hear the chastisment of the Lord. I want to learn as much about God as I possibly can. I do not want to fall prey to the 'itchy ear' syndrome either. So, for some of what is said to me, I can let it go. I know it is wrong. But there are others that I am not so certain of so I take it back to God. Usually, He gives me a deeper understanding of what I know to be true so neither I nor the person who spoke to me are wrong. Sometimes, He says nothing and I am left to either question my faith, solidfy my faith that much more, or let it go until God reveals the understanding to me at a later when when I can better understand the answer. My question concerns how I am to refrain from the appearance of evil if man's perceptions of me are not as Holy as God's. I am accountable for my behavior and I am not to cause others to stumble. But what one man considers Holy another considers sin. And to be honest, I have refrained from doing and saying much because I am so very afraid of causing another to stumble or to feel judged. How am I to know how they perceive what I do or say unless they tell me? And when they do I feel horrible. Then I have to question whether or not their perspective is Godly or not, but even if I know it isn't, they believe they are right on and I have still caused them to stumble. I cannot live for man. I have to live for God because He is absolute truth. Yet I feel like a chicken running around with my head cut off trying to please man (having a good reputation with mankind) and all of our weird and skewed perspectives. I feel like I'm going crazy trying to keep everyone from stumbling. I'm accountable to God! I do not want to stand before Him while He reveals all the ways I've caused others to stumble! Any help to bring balance to this will be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

I guess I stand from the perspective of God having creating everything, and Satan twisting it if he can. I'd like to turn back to God all that Satan has twisted. Music is an example. Music comes from God but Satan has put his stink on it and now it can be used against God. The same with the gift of writing, artistic talent, athletic talent, etc. I think the overall game of D&D (role playing, problem solving) is a wonderful game. There just isn't a Christian version of it that has one deity-God-and demons that are turned away simply by saying the name of Jesus. When I thought about trying to get my daughter interested in the game, I ran into quite a few things that just didn't jive with me like they did back before I knew God. Magic was one of them. The deities and demons and the Nine Planes were the others. As the DM, I thought I could make my world such that only one God reigned-my God-and I would restrict the 'monsters' to imaginary natural ones (unlike demonic ones with access to evil spirits). I wanted to make the world a fantasical representation of the real world-meaning that we fight on a spiritual level, but the dangers to our flesh are physical. It wasn't easy to do. I was still working some things out when my daughter told me she didn't want to play. As for magic, I love its fantasical quality, but I'm glad it isn't real. I delight in the imagination of children and magic has always been a part of that. My daughter knows that magic isn't real, but she does know that spirits (both angelic and demonic) are. I've told her that the "magic" of today is a gateway to demonic spirits, just as the Quija Board is. God is our source for all things, not magic, not conjuring, not chanting. I know I am accountable for what I teach my daughter, so I've tried to teach her that all things come from God. Since Satan has twisted a lot of things there are somethings that started out as good, and appear good but aren't anymore. I hope I am making sense. Its hard to put into words. I guess the magic I enjoy is the stuff of literature, not the black magic, white magic stuff people dabble in today. I know that stuff is dangerous and that God is against it all the way. Does this make sense?

I'd like to offer my opinion, if I may. First, I do believe God knows everything, and second, His knowing everything does not discount our free choice. Imagine a woman pregnant with a child that she knows has something wrong with it. This something will cause her and the child all kinds of grief as it grows up, but she chooses to bring the child into the world anyways. Why? Because she loves the child. God knew we would sin, but it didn't stop Him from creating us (all of us-non believers and believers alike). He loves us that much. My daughter is 12 and just beginning those years where she might experiement here and there with things that are dangerous. Like God warns me, I've warned my daughter of the dangers of this or that, but in the end, she makes the choice, she learns the lesson, and she lives with the consequences. I knew my daughter would disobey me sometimes, be disrespectful sometimes, but I still brought her into the world. God is my Heavenly Father and He did the same for me. Also remember, God knows everything; we don't. The bible is for us, not for Him. We are the ones who need to be taught, not Him. God had a choice to make: to create us or not. I think it glorious that God chose, of His own free will, to create us anyways, and that Jesus chose to offer us a way back to Him. I don't believe that God knowing how I will act or what I will choose displaces my ability of free choice. He simply knows, being that He created us, what I will choose. For example, if you know your child likes chocolate ice cream, how sure are you that they will choose chocolate over vanilla if you offer both? You're pretty certain(being that we are human and not God) that they will choose chocolate, but you offered both out of respect for their free will. This is a simple analogy for something far grander, but its the best way I have to describe how I feel about this issue.

Hi Iryssa, Never got to the books. I had just been told about them when the group I was playing with broke up. It was just getting too hard to get everyone together for a game. I was planning on reading them to help me become a DM, but I never found another group who wanted to play. I tried to get my daughter interested, but she'd prefer the visual stimulus of video games. Still, it would be fun to read them. Thanks for the tips on the authors.

Hi Amaan, I think D&D is like a car-its as dangerous as the person driving it. I played for a group for a while and none of those people took the game to the extreme. It was something to do on a Saturday. Nobody took it more seriously than that. On the other hand, my cousin and her husband have taken the game very seriously. I won't critsize their choice of entertainment, only their priorities. Right now, their kids are suffering from their parents spending way too much time and way too much money on the game (they travel to Dragon Con's all over the world). All of the kids are messed up on something, and my aunt and uncle are constantly having to provide things that their own parents won't. My cousin is driving this D&D car with no brakes and running the kids over in the process. So for her, D&D is dangerous, but for me, it was just something fun to do. Your post is like Greek to me. Are you saying people have D&D cars? What are dragon cons? Could you explain what the D&D lifestyle is so I can understand what is being talked about here? I thought it was a board game. Thanks. D&D stands for Dungeons and Dragons. It is a role playing game. People create characters of various kinds, and then a Dungeon Master creates a world in which these characters must live. It is similar to the world of Lord of the Rings (only there are many, many 'worlds' out there now). There are different races of characters-elves, dwarves,human,etc. and different classes of characters-warriors, rangers, magic users, and clerics (priests). The DM (Dungeon Master) creates a situation, for example: a warrior, magic user, and a cleric are lost within a dungeon under an abandoned castle. There, they will meet various monsters to battle, or evil magic users, or natural 'traps' like pitfalls. The characters have various abilities and various items in which to use in order to 'survive' the dungeon. Instead of 'win' if you survive, your character grows in abilities and thus gains levels making them more 'powerful'. It is a game of imagination. Dragon Cons are simply conferences for D&D players to gather. I didn't mean that D&D was a car, only that if the wrong people play the game, it can be dangerous to them or to others who play with them, kind of like a sober person letting the drunk guy drive. I hope this helped a little.

Hi Amaan, I think D&D is like a car-its as dangerous as the person driving it. I played for a group for a while and none of those people took the game to the extreme. It was something to do on a Saturday. Nobody took it more seriously than that. On the other hand, my cousin and her husband have taken the game very seriously. I won't critsize their choice of entertainment, only their priorities. Right now, their kids are suffering from their parents spending way too much time and way too much money on the game (they travel to Dragon Con's all over the world). All of the kids are messed up on something, and my aunt and uncle are constantly having to provide things that their own parents won't. My cousin is driving this D&D car with no brakes and running the kids over in the process. So for her, D&D is dangerous, but for me, it was just something fun to do.

Thank you. It is wonderfully comforting to know that God's blessings to me can be shared with others in need. More than anything, that experience has taught me that if I am not giving love, I am giving something else. That something else is not of God. As difficult as it is to honor someone who is abusive in every form of the word, they need us to stick it out with them in love. It took God a long time to get through to me. The hurt the world has caused me, caused me to test God until He proved to me that He wouldn't leave me no matter how horrible I was. Even now, I still throw temper tantrums with Him, and test him, but He sticks with me nonetheless. He just loves me too much to let anything I do change Him from His ability to love me. I want to be like Jesus. Loving others will carry me to the cross too, but the end is their salvation and resurrection.

Hi everyone, I've been reading through a lot of the responses to the original question, and I'd like to add my experience. Six years ago, the man I had known for twelve years and been married to for almost six, was arrested for sexually molesting my daughter (who was almost six at the time.) I went to sleep with a man I knew, and woke up to a man I had never known existed and never suspected existed. Stranger or not, he had completely changed the course of his life. He was getting ready to face the terrors of prison, locked away from society for the next 30 years, and come out of prison to a world that will hate him forever. And I had a daughter who had been hurt very deeply by someone she trusted completely. Her faith in daddy was gone, and her faith in me had been damaged as well. She would live with the memory of what he did to her for the rest of her life; she feels guilty (on an emotional level) and believes that because she said something, he is now in prison; at the precious age of almost six, her ideas of sex and love could be forever tainted because of this; her perception of men has been tainted (she is 12 now and is still terrified of men); she is also dealing with things I can never know because I have no personal experience with sexual abuse. I know verbal and physical abuse and neglect. No other experience in my life has taught me more about God's definition of love. I have to say first that love is a gift we give to people. We have the power to offer this gift because Jesus has the power to offer it to us. When we receive Jesus as our savior, we receive His gift of love. It isn't for putting on a shelf as a display-it is for giving. I can give love to anyone! I have that freedom! I have that power! Everyone expected me to hate my husband, but I couldn't. I certainly hate what he did to my daughter and what he did to himself. I was no more glad to see him suffer than I was to see my daughter suffer. It was easy for me to see that if no one ever suffered, no one in the future would suffer. And the only way to prevent future suffering was to love right now. When a DEFACs worker asked me how I could still love him, God spoke up and said, "Hating won't heal her (meaning my daughter)." I looked over at my happy little girl (she was watching Barney) and knew that He was right. I had to teach her about God's love. More than faith, more than miracles, I had to teach her what God's love really was. She still possessed the power to love her daddy because what he did to her had no power to take her gift of love from her. She was above all of that if she could just remember to possess what God has given her. And that love was what her daddy needed more than anything else. Neither of us could see him again, but we could offer our gift of love to him through prayer. God could get it to him. We both still struggle with our emotions over this, and there are questions that have not been answered yet. Wisdom still to be gained. Yet, neither of us has lost our gift of love, and, if anything, our desire to give love has increased, not decreased, because we know that love is needed more. To me, honor and love are the same thing. A child who is stuck in an abusive situation can still love that parent because no power on earth can overcome it. How many people really know what that love means? I certainly had a twisted idea of love and so does any child caught in abuse of any kind. Many of God's people in the bible cried out to God, "Who can honor You from the grave?" We all know that to honor God is to obey His will and His will is for us to love others as Jesus has loved us. Without love, we are in the grave. A child stuck in learning an earthly definition of love will continue in that grave and so will the person who is abusing him or her. The only means of getting out of that grave is learning God's definition of love and the real power he or she possesses with that love. Love is a gift and a force to pull others out of the grave they are in. As the adults given charge over these little ones, we need to teach the children how to 'love' his or her parents, teach the children the power of that love- strengthen their spirit with it! God will always honor love given and will place the solution to the situation in their midst. I trust that with my whole heart. I hope this doesn't sound too preachy. I trust love. I trust God. God is love. And I know the miracle that has kept my daughter very loving and kind. God saved us. He kept our desire for Him safe and we are still His without bitterness or resentment. Anger sometimes, rage sometimes, confusion sometimes, but always running back to Him, our strong tower, when that anger, rage, and confusion tries to take over. Jesus died so all of that could vanish from us. His love was so powerful it crushed death. My daughter and I know have that power, too. And so do we all. Teach the children who they are-givers of love, the most powerful gift of all.