John 10:10a The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:

I was not raised with the understanding that I had an enemy. I did not understand that many of my misconceptions of life were feeding right into Satan’s hatred of me. He hates us all, even those who serve him.

In yesterday’s blog I barely touched the surface on how parents, surroundings and events build a perception of reality which may be flawed, tainted, or even a lie. It is nearly impossible to cover all the possibilities here, even in a year. So I would like to take just one example of perception from my life and tell you how it affected me. It had to do with fly fishing.

Allow me to say that there is more to fly fishing than learning how to cast. It was the last day of a long weekend alone with my parents on Indian Pond. My mother was paddling the raft to the other end of the pond while I made the last few casts of the trip. I had caught nothing during those three day. As we passsed near the shore I had a strike and it was a rather large Indian Pond trout.

My mother stopped paddling and began watching the fight. Suddenly she yelled at me, “He is going to jump!” Sure enough this big thick, beautiful trout rose up out of the water, flipped around and threw the hook. My mother’s heart sank, disappointment was seen all over her face. Now, being a parent myself, I can understand she was disappointed for me. As a child my perception was that she was disappointed in me.

Where was the instruction that should have come with some training in how to handle the fly rod as a fish is about to jump? Was I expected to know what to do without instruction? None of that ever happened and all I got out of the experience at the time was feeling like a failure and a disappointment.

Instruction in righteousness, right action, right relationship, was not my experience.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

My use of MMM is very similar to my post on WWW except rather than tales from the bible it is tales from your life. Just as having a proper understanding about biblical characters, places and events will help you understand mankind, the MMM will help you unravel the mysteries of your own life.

Perhaps the most profound revelation about my early life came from my older sister. As I began to relate to her my early life and struggles she stopped me and said this; “It wasn’t that way at all!”

How many of you grew up in a household where Godly principles and worship were a part of your daily life? I was not and I dare say that many in my generation did not. The few that did stood out and as a child I had no idea what normal should be. My perception of the reality of my life was left to my imagination and raw emotions without any insight from my parents. Instruction of any kind was very limited. I learned what was wrong from doing wrong and being punished. Which taught me I was a bad child.

It comes down to this, my parents cannot give what they do not have. As I grew up there was a sense of what my parents had to live thru as children of the depression era. I did not hear it from them but thru books and documentaries. Those were flawed because they left out the personal touch of my parent’s experiences and how it affected them.

How much of the life and times of my parents are reflected in how I was raised? My perceptions are flawed so I cannot rely on them. At some point in my life I had to let go of perceptions and find out what in me was tainted by the lies of perception.