I Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; When I became a man, I did away with childish things.
The Toddler Property Rights that I posted on Monday display a childish, even infantile, mentality. Toddlers are going through the 'adolescence' between infancy and childhood. They are old enough to express their demanding, self-centered infantile mind but not quite mature enough to learn basic things like "sharing" and "empathy" and respecting another's "boundaries". It is a stage that children go through that is natural and expected.
But an adult behaving according to the Toddler Property Rights is not natural or expected. It is unacceptable and shows the adult to be childish and in no condition to have authority or responsibility.
The opposite of the Toddler Property Rights is found a few verses above I Corinthians 13:11.
Verses 4-7 goes like this: Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek it's own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
You just can't get more opposite of the Toddler Property Rights. Anyone wanting to obey the law of love and yet hold onto the toddler property rights mentality are sorry out of luck because "it does not seek it's own" pretty much does away with any idea that person has a right to take something away from another person.
Looking at it another way, thieves live by Toddler Property Rights law #3: "If I can take it away from you, it's mine." But God's law, even in the Old Testament states: "Thou shalt not steal." So what is a thief to do if he wants to grow up and stop being a toddler? He must put away childish things.
Ephesians 4:28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
In other words, rather than taking, consuming, and hurting others with his childish self in mind, a thief needs to learn to be a producer, giver, blesser. And in this way, the thief changes his way and no longer imitates the devil who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but begins to imitate God who is a Producer, Giver, and Blesser.
So, in essence, putting away childish things is rejecting selfish, hurtful, worldly, and satanic reasoning and taking on, or accepting giving, creating, blessing, and godly reasoning.
Simple to explain. Much harder to bring into practice. At least that's what I observe because I see a lot of Christians, including those in leadership, who still embrace the Toddler Property Rights mentality.
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2 comments:
What I learned in the process of recovery is that men who were abused very early in childhood get "emotionally arrested" and do not develop empathy. They have "empathic failure".
My husband has empathic failure. He is incapable of grasping how his action affects someone else's feelings. The marriage counselor who worked with us suggested Asperger Syndrome.
Anyway, the ONLY thing that works with people like this is behavior modification. The consequences for bad behavior have to be painful enough for THEM that they don't want to do that behavior anymore.
The problem comes when teachers like Driscoll come along with all the male entitlement stuff and a wife gets sucked in. She is given no authority to say "NO" which might be enough of a behavior modification early on... When the bad behavior goes on unchecked for years, it gets harder to modify.
BTW. Hubs still has no empathy and I don't think he ever will. But our marriage of nearly 30 years HAS changed from a hostile environment to much more pleasant as I recovered my voice and my God given authority.
Yep, Gem.
You are already connecting the dots of where I want to go with this.
Control and manipulation are adult ways of pursuing toddler property rights.
"If I can take it away from you, it's mine," is something that is visible in marriages and churches.
Sierra's post, that I linked to, is another example of the toddler mentality gone amuck among men. They are not acting like Jesus. They are stealing and running over their women. And there is no one to declare to them that they should put away childish things because their teachers are just as much spiritual toddlers as the church memembers.
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