Love the Hell out of Your Children

By Cynthia L. Jackson

The greatest of these is LOVE...Matthew 24:12 Because iniquity shall abound the LOVE of many shall wax cold.John 15:13 Greater LOVE hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. John 15:10 When you obey me you remain in my LOVE just as I obey my Father and remain in His LOVE. John 10:12 I command you to LOVE each other in the same way that I LOVE you. John 3:16 For God so LOVED the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. Matthew 19:19 Honor your Father and Mother. LOVE your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 23:27 JESUS said unto him you must LOVE the Lord your GOD with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Hebrews 10:24 Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of LOVE and good deeds. 1 John 4: 16-17 We know how much GOD LOVES us, and we put our trust in Him. GOD is LOVE, and all who live in LOVE live in GOD, and GOD lives in them.17 And as we live in GOD our LOVE grows more perfect.1 John 4:18 There is no fear in LOVE;perfect LOVE casteth out fear:because fear hath torment, he that feareth is not made perfect in LOVE. Ephesians 3:17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of GODS marvelous LOVE.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504956253

Cynthia L. Jackson

During Cynthia Jackson’s years of displacement, she and her children were privileged to be housed among families whose children were being abused, but because the abuse was verbal, it wasn’t considered abuse from the parents’ perspective. The more her faith continued to grow and mature, the more vexed her spirit became—so Love the Hell Out of Your Children was born.

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2015 Cynthia L. Jackson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   10/23/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-5626-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-5625-3 (e)

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version. First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Contents

Preface

Check the Tree

Who’s in the House?

Call Those Things That Be Not

Who’s the Master?

Color Him Father!

Are You My Mother?

Choices, Choices, Choices

Am I My Brothers’ Keeper?

About the Author

Preface

My beloved family, I know that once we are able to move past the point of viewing our children as any of the following—a mistake, a paycheck, a waste of time, a hindrance, an inconvenience, and/or an obligation—we will be able to see a bit clearer, and we will cherish them as Father God intended us to. When you start to realize that they are precious gifts, your seed, your inheritance, and part of your covenant with Him, then, yes, you can Love the Hell out of Your Children!

It doesn’t matter if we have zero or twenty children. There is always a child in our immediate surroundings who is in need of a friend, a sister or brother, parent, a listening ear, or just a helping hand. The saying is true—it does take a village to raise a child. I am truly grateful for all the helping hands in our lives.

Too many of us are desensitizing the next generation. We allow children to be exposed to way too much too early on—through games, phones, movies, computers, and television. Even as adults, we can’t digest a constant diet of garbage and then expect it to suddenly show up as something positive in our lives. Some of us didn’t have the tremendous overload of drugs, sex, violence, sorcery, and disrespect flooding all of our senses all the time while growing up. Yet we call this entertainment today. This raises a question that should be asked? What kind of adults are our children turning in to?

Before and after my children came along, I heard comments that really devalue our children, such as, Are you keeping it? You’re pregnant again? "Two is enough. You don’t need any more. What if the baby is light-skinned? Then what? Which one do you want, a boy or a girl? Oh, no, I can’t deal with no girls! These are just some of the seeds the enemy tried to plant. Even the Sisters of the Faith said things like, You already have a girl and a boy; that’s enough, and, You can barely take care of the ones you have. If I were you, I’d ship her off to stay with her father and let him see what it is like to live with that! I did it. What if it’s a girl? If it’s a girl I will give it away."

During one of my adventures, I was in my last trimester. My belly was really out there. While I was standing in front of the church waiting for the doors to open, a sister turned to me and said, Soo, you gonna keep it? I had to look at her for a moment because those words hit me in the pit of my stomach—I was nauseated. I took a couple of steps back from her, saying, Lord, she didn’t mean it.

She looked at me and said, Oh, yes I did.

I studied her for a moment and then repeated what I’d said. After a few more moments, conviction hit her and she tried to clean it up. Even the tone in her voice was apologetic.

Our words carry a lot of weight. They will plant something in the receiver regardless of our intentions, and every one of our spirits will respond upon hearing them!

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t trying to have any children. This happened to be God’s plan for me.

I prayed a lot and often. I didn’t pray for a boy or a girl, just for a healthy baby. I even talked to my children while they were in utero before it was a social buzz. I knew that I needed a lot of help. So I asked the Lord to help me; I knew that, if He didn’t, I was going to blow it—big-time!

As children of the King, we were told to pray without ceasing. This was not a suggestion from the Father but a commandment.

All these shining examples around me were giving me what was really in their hearts. Fortunately, I learned some time before children came into my life that there are two types of criticism—constructive and destructive. Before we can decide which a category a particular line of criticism falls into, we must consider the source and then examine ourselves. Well, I decided that the majority of what I heard was destructive. So I dismissed most of it. I had considered the sources. Those statements were coming from hurt, angry, fearful, bitter, and even jealous women. These were women who, first, didn’t have an intimate relationship with the Lord. In addition, they really didn’t like or interact with their own children. A couple of them had even given up their parental rights—meaning they allowed someone else to raise their children. They just dropped their kids off with family or placed them in the system and kept it movin’.

For me, the answer was to continue praying about all things concerning pregnancy and becoming a mother. I found out that you’ll very seldom get two people to agree on what all of that entails.

For example, I had people ask me why I would talk to the baby before the child was actually here. It really was senseless to them. I knew that this was helpful to myself and the child that was growing within me. In addition to that, whatever was going on with me was going on with the baby. I knew I would be doing a lot of talking as a mother, so I figured I might as well get started.

I don’t think I will ever forget something that happened while I was carrying my oldest. I was in