Can We See How Our Past Has Shaped Our Present And May Shape Our Future?

There exists studies which attempt to measure the affects of childhood traumas that shape not only individual children, but the children of affected children... and so on for generations.

The ongoing psychological affects of slavery from not only the African slave trade into western societies, but perhaps earlier (and current) slave trades the world-over experienced by a myriad of peoples throughout history.

Consider how childhood sexual, physical, emotional (or any other kind of ) abuse often influences the choices victimized people make as adults... as in the case of prostitution, for example.

Both exploited and exploiter justify their sin.

Man has a great responsibility, not only over one's self, but also over others.

This responsibility is what many desire to eschew, because it is a heavy burden to carry out one's consciousness throughout life in consideration of others.

If you personally experienced some level of trauma as a child, perhaps you can relate and understand how some events may have had a lasting impression on you.

Your character and manners have likely been adjusted or have been altered in some fashion.

For some of us, the challenges have allowed for a strengthening to occur... and we are possibly more sensitive to the troubles of others.

Despite the pain, perhaps we have learned a great deal in how not to treat others... and this learning may have allowed us to forgive those who have hurt us.

We likely better understand how tricky and deceptive sin can be... and how sin comes through a person, and isn't so much originating in any given person, but is a spiritual issue ultimately.

Despite our the initial weakness or damage, there is strength and cure.

But not all people who have experienced trauma as children have overcome or been able to handle the consequences from that trauma.

We may know examples of people so overwhelmed by their childhood afflictions, they seem engulfed and trapped.

There is purpose in all things, even where something may at first glance seem absolutely hopeless.

Consider the opportunity to serve, learn, and grow in love and patience and long suffering with others.

Not easy to do, let alone consider... but in such considerations is found meaning and understanding.

Each one of us has a story to tell (or many).

Each one of us has been slightly damaged or soiled in some manner, either from harm intended or unintended.

Since mankind is fallible, and we consist of the compiled past failures of our ancestors and forefathers, we have in our flesh (mind and the world) the patterned scars of persistent affliction.

This is likely where the dogma of original sin is reasoned and rightly affirmed.

On a greater scale, our immediate society and prevalent culture manifests these afflictions quite steadily... many of which go widely unnoticed due to their saturation.

Closer to home, ourselves and our relatives have been influenced by such cultural influences... but can we identify each and every one?

Not that this effort is suggested, but a bit of effort may reveal enough for one to be convinced of the state of mankind ever since the very beginning when it comes to obedience or deviance.

It is only when reading the events of the past, especially in the account known as the Bible, that we can see how the warnings came to fruition regarding the trespassing of God's Law and its consequences.

When someone from that historical past made a bad choice in place of a better choice, there is so much more to learn beyond the immediate affect of the consequence.

We can read how a single act of deviance can set a different course... initially ever so slight, but over generations becoming a vast canyon.

For the skeptic, it is easy to dismiss these valuable lessons as mere dramatic legends written to strike fear in anyone considering not believing it or doing different... instead of the very personal and very real accounts of a not too distant past that are relived and experienced through us on a daily basis.

It is easy to dismiss them because they are too close to home... too personal if considered.

If only considering them as historically true, and only as a reflection of an archaic time not relevant to the present age... this excuse fails to take into account all typical human issues mentioned therein are still persistent in mankind today.

The same temptations and failures talked about throughout the Bible continues to plague man.

Selfishness, fear, greed, lust, jealousy, and the entire list of the 10 Commandments are the mainstay for man's record of reality.

These are real issues that any honest and brave adult can fully reflect in themselves when having trespassed or at least been tempted to sin.

This is why the skeptic must not only deny God, but also deny the very idea of sin.

And where God is denied, and sin denied by extension of avoiding personal responsibility, there is found mental trauma... be it ever so subtle and excusable as 'normal' according to society's collective afflictions.

For the skeptic to accept that they are fallible in so many ways means their guilty conscience is not a figment of a persistent and imaginative suggestion from the past, but something very real and eternal (the Word of God speaking to their soul - Creator speaking to the created).

It is very uncomfortable for anyone to measure themselves with what is right from what is wrong... let alone the journey of one's heart reflecting what is right from wrong throughout life's challenges.

When someone takes a look at themselves in God's Mirror (Yeshua thy Lord), they are able to see the solution to life's patterned plagues.

This is why it says the coward will not inherit the kingdom of God, because cowardice makes excuses and refuses to face both the sin inflicted upon one's self as a child and the sin the child, now an adult, has inflicted upon themselves and others.

It takes bravery to admit to the reality of God and sin because to admit God is to admit one's shortcoming (humanity), and then the need for a saving solution.

The redemption is the Light at the end of this world's tunnel.

That redemption is Namely Yeshua (Hebrew meaning 'to deliver', 'to rescue', 'to save').

It is only in God where eternal solutions come from this world's temporary troubles.

You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. 

   You know when I sit and when I rise; 

     You perceive my thoughts from afar. 

        You discern my going out and my lying down; 

           You are familiar with all my ways. 

              Before a word is on my tongue 

                 You, Lord, know it completely. 

                    You hem me in behind and before, 

                       and You lay your hand upon me. 

                        Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, 

                     too lofty for me to attain. 

                  Where can I go from Your Spirit? 

                     Where can I flee from Your Presence? 

                  If I go up to the heavens, You are there; 

                     if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. 

                        If I rise on the wings of the dawn, 

                           if I settle on the far side of the sea, 

                              even there Your Hand will guide me, 

                                 Your Right Hand will hold me fast. 

                                    If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me 

                                 and the Light become night around me,” 

                              even the darkness will not be dark to You; 

                           the night will shine like the day, 

                        for darkness is as Light to You. 

                     For You created my inmost being; 

                        You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

                     I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

                  Your works are wonderful, 

               I know that full well. 

            My frame was not hidden from You 

               when I was made in the secret place, 

            when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 

         Your eyes saw my unformed body; 

      all the days ordained for me were written in Your Book 

   before one of them came to be. 

      How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! 

         How vast is the sum of them! 

            Were I to count them, 

               they would outnumber the grains of sand— 

                  when I awake, I am still with You. 

                     If only You, God, would slay the wicked! 

                  Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 

               They speak of You with evil intent; 

            Your adversaries misuse Your Name. 

               Do I not hate those who hate You, Lord, 

                  and abhor those who are in rebellion against You? 

               I have nothing but hatred for them; 

            I count them my enemies. 

         Search me, God, and know my heart; 

      test me and know my anxious thoughts. 

   See if there is any offensive way in me, 

and lead me in the way everlasting. 

- Psalm 139