Launching the Next Generation: Heavenly Celebrations in Lifespan Development

By Medelia G. Jordan

This back cover is something that I hope will catch your attention!

LAUNCHING OUR TRUE IDENTITY!

This books explores the many viewpoints of well-known psychologists, theorist, and "great thinkers" throughout all the stages of lifespan development. Our mission here is to become virtuous leaders, teac

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Apr 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887383682

Medelia G. Jordan

As a retired educator, I have not lost my passion for helping others, especially our youth, to know God better. I spent thirty years as an educator, as well as many years in choirs and worship teams. I studied many endeavors in education, including elementary education and psychology. With five endorsements: reading, writing, science, Spanish, and music, I then furthered my education with a master's degree in science and taught science in middle school for twenty years. Bringing this education all together gives me a way to help and teach others.

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Launching the Next Generation: Future and Hope!

Heavenly Celebrations in Lifespan Development

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2023 by Medelia G. Jordan

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. TM. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

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

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Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 979-8-88738-367-5

E-ISBN: 979-8-88738-368-2

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my deepest thanks to TBN, who has made this possible. TBN has been one of the great lighthouses to the world, as well as CBN, respectively. Both networks have given godly virtues to our world and also our youth, through the many great contributors, including preachers and authors. Smile of a Child and Superbook help children to also become knowledgeable and virtuous. In addition, my heartfelt thanks go out to Dr. Marilyn Hickey, who has been a spiritual mentor to me, and to Matt and Laurie Crouch, whose ministry has been a blessing to the world. Jesus is always at the center of our hope! Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge friends and family for their love. Jeff, my son, helped me with the technical aspects of the book, for which I am very grateful for his skills and expertise in computer science. My friends Marina Statsenko and Carolyn Curtis have also encouraged me, as well as my brother and sister, to aspire to live a virtuous life. All of my friends and family were helpful in giving me advice and love. Lastly, I am also very thankful to Jennifer and Julia, my daughters, and my son, Jeff, who are an incredible source of inspiration to me. I wrote this book with the express help of my son, who is part of that younger generation, given he has incredible skills in computer science. What a pleasure to work with him and get his point of view for this book about what people his age think. Furthermore, all my adult children have turned out to be awesome and good people with great goals, marriages, and careers of their own; and all of them have kept faith in God. Almighty God has given me this vision for my life to help the next generations. Praise God.

Preface

This book is a Heavenly Celebration of Life-Span Development! Future generations need us! We are their parents, foster care, daycare workers, teachers, guides, and leaders. We need to serve the next generation well. God is the Keeper of the truth, which is for all mankind, and it is all our responsibility to let our youth know we love them very much and we want them to be knowledgeable about the virtues (including faith) which God has for them. Our mission statement, or purpose of this life-span development, is to point the way back to God at every single stage of life, including conception! It’s a wonderful exploration of virtues. Further, the virtues expressed in this book will help our youth attain self-actualization. Do we consistently teach virtues? Do we model these virtues ourselves? We will gain insight as we look at a myriad of ways to gain virtue, which will be a practical guide.

This book explores the viewpoints of thinkers, as well as some of the great psychologists and philosophers (William Shakespeare and poets), along with other great leaders such as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and C. S. Lewis, as well as others who have helped shape our world.

I was trained to be an educator throughout my entire life. As a retired science teacher, I have not abandoned my calling to serve our youth. As an educator, singer, speaker, and author of Call on His Name—Recalculate, I also want people to know (in my first book) how to celebrate recovery and veer away from passive living, and know God better. In this book, however, it is further my passion to help the next generations to discover the secret of a virtuous life in God. It is our mission to help launch our youth into the world prepared to serve and be leaders in their own right. With God’s help, we must leave no child left behind.

Finally, this book goes deeper to prepare our youth and the next generation to see God’s divine guidance at work through the heavenly celebrations of God! This book is for parents, home-school readers, businesses, churches, and anyone who wants to thrive and help launch a generation explosion. Everyone who cares about our youth can help launch the generation revolution in a virtuous and godly way.

We don’t give up! You see, while it might be an American goal to retire and play golf or just have fun, God does not want us to simply retire. In fact, there are great examples to the contrary in the Bible that show us another way to live. Dr. Marilyn Hickey, Dr. David Jeremiah, and Dr. Charles Stanley are among the favorites of people, accordingly, and they will most likely take their last breath serving God in an active way. Truly, seniors are in a great position to be of great influence to others because they are able to use their experiences, skills, and talents to serve God well. They can pray and mentor our youth and may have more time to do it. In the Bible, people didn’t quit. They kept on ministering, mentoring, warning, preaching, disciplining, and serving others. It is such an encouragement to know that we can all help launch the next generations to empower them on a godly journey!

Chapter One

Conception—Heavenly Celebrations of Life!

Approximately every few seconds, a child is born into the world and will begin a lifelong process of growth and maturation. Each being brought into the world is a very unique individual made up of complex combinations of genes and chromosomes characteristic of only one child. Upon examining an individual’s behavior, one becomes increasingly aware of the multitude of factors that compose a human being’s behavior. And perhaps, when one realizes the intricate web of factors that are woven into the child’s emotional, cognitive, social, physical, moral, and spiritual development, one can appreciate each person a little better and hopefully attempt to more fully understand each and every individual. Read Psalm 139. Although one cannot possibly expect to fully cover the vast and intricate areas of conception through adolescence, I want to highlight the main points of the growth and maturation process. I also hope to heighten awareness of how important it is to start preparing for the baby even before conception, knowing that the baby’s heart starts beating on the eighth day! Further, I will examine the effects of both the child and the parent’s relationship to his environment and each other to include spiritual application. By adding to the body of knowledge of life-span development, we can gain a deeper understanding of the constructs of psychology and compare them to God’s truths. Psychologists look at the behavior of man, but Jesus examined the conflicts of the soul and showed us how to aspire to a godly and virtuous life. We have a sinful nature, which psychologists may deem good or bad, but all would agree that training is needed at an early age. Proverbs says to train means that we up a child in the way that is right, and then, later, that person will not depart from his training. The fact is that Generation X is said to have a 16 percent world biblical view and does not simply give up on them. On the contrary, we want every generation to know just how precious they are to us! If the school systems can (and do) target every grade, know that with God, all things are possible, and we are going to launch goals that lovingly bring our youth to know themselves and God better! So, what has happened to our youth, and why? We must respond to the call to get back all of the generations we may have lost, and we must trust God to help us build a love for ourselves very early! A joyful way to do that is to sing and use music in a worshipful way. Psalm 139:13–14 (KJV) says, For thou possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee for I am wonderfully made. Marvelous are His works and my soul knoweth right well.

The first stage in life-span development is called the prenatal stage, which covers conception to birth. This, in turn, can be related to Piaget’s four basic stages of development. Piaget’s first stage is the sensorimotor stage, from the beginning of life to age two. This is the stage where the infant learns through the senses, mostly sight, sound, and touch, but is not yet able to understand concretely or, rather, completely. Erik Erickson, on the other hand, states that the first two years of life are the time in which the child is developing either a sense of trust and security or a deep sense of mistrust. But the Lord has been our dwelling place in all generations. And yet, we struggle to do things with our own strength. We can put our trust in the Lord! However, Erik Erickson views trust and mistrust as a dichotomy. Then, it is important to point out that Erickson sees it as a continuum along which it is desirable to be farther on the trust than the mistrust side. I might also add that Erik Erickson’s theory of personality development differs from Freud’s theory in several ways. Although Erickson studied with Freud, he disagreed with the emphasis that Freud placed on infantile sexuality. Note that we will discuss God’s view of sexuality later in the book. Erickson tended to perceive the child’s behavior more as a result of societal influences and conditioning. Would you agree with that? Thus, children understand concepts broadly, and stories of the faith will supersede their conditioning because stories of the Bible plant a good seed early into their sponge-like minds.

It is also interesting to note that whereas Erickson thought the course of development was reversible so that the events of later childhood could be undone—for better or for worse; some of the early personality structure had been built. Another theorist, Maslow, created a triangle chart in which he pointed out that our need for security is the primary function of a person, and without this, self-actualization is not easily attained. Therefore, start early to pray for your child and model joy! Remember, it is the spirit that brings life. Have faith and enter into His presence with praise!

Freud, however, says that the basic personality structure was essentially fixed at age five. But God says the mind is resilient, taking in a lot of information. Even in the womb, babies are known to suck their thumbs, smile, and respond to music. It starts early. But don’t underestimate the power of God! God tells us that conception is the beginning of life. Honor life at the moment of conception. I remember seeing my children on the ultrasound, and what I saw thrilled me! I was able to see each of them. What I saw amazed me. I could see a little person stretching, sucking their thumb, and smiling, and it was such a beautiful marvel to see the goodness of God’s creation!

Therefore, speak life and truth as a protection over their lives. Keep in mind that neuroplasticity, according to Christian neuroscience, tells us the Word of God can touch us at any age and literally changes the networking of our brain. Dr. Carolyn Leaf, a Christian neuroscientist, also tells us this in one of her books entitled Switch on Your Brain. Praise God! And that being said, it is important to understand these theories in order to get a fuller and better grasp of a child’s behavior, growth, and maturation. But truly, remember, God does have the final say as to life at all stages. Let’s take a look at the first developmental stage, conception to birth, on to about two years old. In addition, it is also important to keep these men and their theories in mind in order to get a fuller and better understanding of a child’s behavior, growth, and maturation.

We do know that a new individual is created with the fertilization of the ovum by the sperm and with the fusion of these two gametes (the egg and sperm) into a single-celled organism, the zygote. The zygote then multiplies and differentiates into the billions of cells that make up a human being. The DNA of a child is a marvelous work of God, and no wonder Satan wants to attack creation itself! In fact, in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled against Roe vs. Wade, overturning it! They made a brilliant decision based on the understanding of life itself. Yet, to my surprise, instead of the news media championing life from conception and applauding this important decision, the news showed rage of people voicing their displeasure at the decision. Then, each state was vying for its own outcome. Ironically, these very people who were protesting this decision were born, so their argument of choice is very confusing because it focuses on themselves at the expense of the innocent who are waiting to join them on this earth. Psalm 68 tells us that God is the One who holds those issues of life and death and that it belongs to no other but Him. He makes it very clear. Read Psalm 68:20. It’s not our call—life and death belong to God. Some things are just not our business: creation, life, babies, and death! These things are in the hands of God.

Some may not know that it was New York that was the first state in America to institute abortion. That building is called the House of Faces in New York. It was New York