WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I TALKED LIKE A CHILD, I THOUGHT LIKE A CHILD, I REASONED LIKE A CHILD. WHEN I BECAME A MAN, I PUT CHILDISH WAYS BEHIND ME
(1 Corinthians 13:11).

 Know that sometimes a parent still thinks like a child, reasons like a child, and feels like a child.  Sometimes it is hard for a parent to put childish ways behind her.

HE WAS A MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING. HE HAS ALWAYS HATED THE TRUTH, BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. WHEN HE LIES, IT IS CONSISTENT WITH HIS CHARACTER; FOR HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF LIES
(John 8:44).

Understand that your parents were not exempt from the father-of-lies’ deception.  During a parent’s childhood, the father-of-lies attacked with the fierceness of a lion, instilling lies into their minds: “You don’t belong. You are a mistake. You are different and defective.” The accuser’s goal was for your parents to become slaves to these negative, destructive childhood beliefs, so these would carry over into their adulthood…and then to you and your children.

Be released from the belief that everything that went wrong during your childhood was your fault: that you were the bad one…that you were responsible…that you were guilty.  Understand that when your parent condemned you, he could have been reacting from his own wrong interpretations of non-acceptance.  When your parent rejected you, she could have been responding from her own rejected heart.  When your parent overly controlled, she could have been retaliating from a place of fear. Know that when your parent abused you, he was under the control of the father-of-lies.

THEREFORE KNOW THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD, HE IS GOD, THE FAITHFUL GOD WHO KEEPS COVENANT AND MERCY FOR A THOUSAND GENERATIONS WITH THOSE WHO LOVE HIM AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS
(Deuteronomy 7:9).

What are you holding against your parent: the shame in your heart, the abandonment in your soul, the condemnation in your spirit, and the rejection in your mind?

I bless you to forgive your parents for living under the management of the father-of-lies, and to surrender them to the Perfect Father, so He could call them to His Truth. Only under His management will they be able to think like an adult, reason like and adult, and talk like an adult. And you will receive healing for your own heart, as well.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, my Savior, help me to believe that it will not do me any good to keep a grudge against my parents for the way they treated me as a child. Help me to understand how the father-of-lies invaded their lives with his lies, so Your Compassion may grow in my heart. Help me to see that it was not what they said or did to me that broke my heart, but the accusatory beliefs of the father-of-lies that were passed down to me. Lord, bless my parents with Your Truth, so they may put childish ways behind them. Then, bless me with Your Truth, so I may grow up, too.