We Are Not Bad
Since I began this amazing journey with Seed Digging, I have encountered an intriguing thing that happens with each person I work with.
Each of us truly has "a child within" that desperately wants to feel needed, accepted, loved, valued. To belong. To feel safe.
When that little part of us feels that any of those needs are in jeopardy, it "self-protects." That self-protection acts very much like a child would act when his most basic needs are neglected.
How would a child act if he hadn't eaten in days? How would a child act if he was neglected constantly or felt his life was in danger?
He would self-protect.
The child would find a way, one way or another to try to meet those innate needs.
That protective mechanism within the mind helps us cope. It helps us survive.
Fight, yell, scream, grapple, or shutdown, the child will communicate one way or another to get his basic innate needs met.
We aren't "bad" for this. Just like a child that is hungry, the mind is no different.
That child will find a way to suffice that deep craving and empty stomach. He will be selfish. He may be irritable. He may whine. He may act "mean." He may beg. He may fight. He will do whatever it takes to "survive" and to stay alive. The body's internal will to survive is incredible.
It's the same thing military men and woman need to be so affective on the battlefield.
It's the innate need to survive. To fight. To grapple. To do whatever it takes to protect the body. To keep itself alive. To keep going against all odds.
A child is no different.
With an underdeveloped vocabulary, unable to always speak what he feels, he acts out in any way he can to communicate he "needs something."
After working with hundreds of adults and children over the past decade, I have had an amazing paradigm shift with my view of human nature.
I have began to see people with eyes of love. When you see the heart and innate desires of people, you cannot help but see a precious child that was once broken or hurt. That child just wanted to be loved. To feel needed. To be accepted. To belong. To feel safe.
I have talked to the "child" within almost all types of people and age groups. Men, women, children.
When I speak to that "wounded" part of a person, my eyes well up with tears as they begin to let me inside their world.
To watch a grown man cry as he describes his pain from childhood is indescribable.
The actions and behavior problems he came to get help with become secondary. When I can help him feel safe, needed, loved, valued, and accepted, his heart begins to change. Those behavior problems clear up on their own.
When that little "wounded child" within that big, strong adult male begins to see how amazing he truly is, "love" takes over. Love changes his heart when he begins to see himself as the perfect creation he was made to be.
As humans, we get caught up in seeing the behaviors. We judge. We scorn. We miss the heart.
When you see people from the inside out, your perspective changes. You see people with His eyes. You see that every human being started out as a tiny precious baby who deeply longed to be loved. Who desperately needed to be needed. To know he was valued. To feel acceptance. To have felt safe.
When God speaks to the soul, people see themselves as he sees them. This changes everything. It changes their life. It changes their relationships. It changes the world.
"Truth Always Sets Us Free."
