Parenting Nightmare

I was sucked into an Oprah show yesterday.  I only saw about half of it, but it was detailing the life of a boy with emotional problems.  Apparently, before he was age 2, he had “uncontrollable rages;” “not the normal 2-year old tantrums,” the mom insisted.  He was later diagnosed as having some sensory issues, being too affected by clothing textures, sounds, etc.  At age 7 or 8, he drew a picture (on the wall) about shooting his mom.  In his tweens, he picked up a knife in a threatening manner toward his mom.  In fact, most of his aggression is aimed towards his mom.  She realized that after the knife incident.

The treatment for his behavior has been medication, which caused him memory loss, educational loss, and probably some personality loss which is normal for those types of drugs.

My first thought was that his parents did not discipline him for his rages when he was younger, so they grew.  But, as they talked, there was more to it than that.  The boy hears “voices” in his head that tell him to do bad things.  He feels that they are “outside” voices, not his own voice.  Sometimes they sound like his dad or late grandfather.  He has been taught now that they are just “negative energy” and if he concentrates on “positive energy,” he is able to overcome them.  This is part of the therapy he receives from psychologists who have him concentrate on “white light” to calm the voices.

I am grieved that these people, both parents and doctors – probably all very well-meaning individuals – have no idea what they are dealing with.  Their problem is spiritual and their answer is spiritual. 

Matthew 17:14-21 (NKJV)

And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.  So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”

Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”  And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Hearing outside voices is a sign of demonic activity.  There was some open door for this child at a young age – through New Age, occult, family curse, TV, movie or music activities, I would guess – that gave Satan’s hoard a foothold.  The power of the demons has increased exponentially because they are not stopped.  The boy may think that he has control now, but that will end as a lie.  Demons are great liars.  I dread to see him in court someday, a grown man, a murderer, saying, “It wasn’t me; it was the voices.”

At the age of 18 months, my daughter had horrible temper tantrums.  Mostly at home, mostly with me.  At the age of 2, she started having nightmares and then, later, night terrors.  She would be screaming and thrashing in her sleep for long periods, but have no recollection of it in the morning.  At first, we took the world’s advice – parenting books advised that this was “normal behavior,” a “stage” – and did nothing.  Then, the Lord began dealing with us.  This was a spiritual matter.  It needed prayer.  We began praying deliverance over our daughter.  In Jesus’ name, we took command over the devil that was working in her.  And that was it.  That night.  Done.  Cured.

We then went hunting for what had been the open door and shut it.  We found that, at too young an age, we had allowed her to watch TV and movies (Dragon Tales, Arthur, and even Disney’s Cinderella) which had spiritual components which we had laughed off.  Dragon Tales uses spells, Arthur’s friend is a fortune teller, and the stepmother in Cinderella was an evil influence.  We have been radical ever since in being vigilant over what our children watch.  They have been vigilant themselves.  Even as tweens and teens, they cover their eyes for most movie previews and for many TV commercials.  They watch very little TV and it Is a rare movie we can see at the movie-house.  They have “made a covenant with their eyes” like Job did (Job 31:1) and have agreed with David in the Psalm:

Psalm 101:3 (KJV)

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; [it] shall not cleave to me.

Our children started this because we mandated it.  But, they remain because they see the good effect.  They don’t get bad dreams.  They don’t have tons of bad thoughts.  When they get out from under this covenant, they know they suffer for it.

Oprah reported that there are millions of children in America diagnosed like that one boy, with “mental” or “emotional” problems.  She encourages them to seek out New Age treatments.  To be “one with the universe” and only allow “positive energy” to flow.  The problem is, that they don’t have access to the real “positive energy.”  It is the devil who poses as an “angel of light.”  They are seeking a spiritual realm, but they have not found God’s realm.  There is only one way to get to God’s realm – through Jesus Christ.  Without Him, their “cures” will be temporary and meaningless.  I prayed that this young man would find Christ.  He and his whole family.  And Oprah too.  If they don’t, America is facing nightmares ahead.