The Great Teachers

When you look for a great teacher, you are looking for someone who is "close" to God. While there may be a number of people that fit this role, you can look no further than children you see every day. They are GIA --- God in Action. Because they have "recently" been with Him, they are not "tainted" by the world and adults. The younger they are, the less they have been taught to act and conform a certain way. They express "true" emotions, and by that I mean that they freely show what they are feeling. They have no agenda in their interactions.

Look at the joy on a child's face as he or she plays a game. Everything is a wonder to them, because everything IS a wonder, and they see it for what it is. They not only live in the joy that is our inheritance form God, they ARE the joy. This is the same joy that you see on the face of the mystics and prophets, past and present. They know this world is not real, so why would they let their joy be affected by any experience or any person. They have no expectations or agendas.

Anger is an emotion that scares many of us. We are afraid to let our anger out, and we are afraid to be on the receiving end of someone else's anger. It brings up the belief that there is guilt attached to someone, and we run from guilt. Thus, a large majority of people do not know how to express their anger in the right fashion, because anger is not to be feared. People either keep it bottled up, which leads to depression and/or disease, or they let it out in inappropriate ways by screaming at or demeaning someone. But look at the raw unfiltered anger of a 2 year old throwing a temper tantrum. They are not judging themselves for doing it, and they do not have an agenda. They are just mad, and once it is over, it is over. There is no afterthought about it.

Now, let's talk about the emotion of fear. Look at the fear and terror on a child's face who is either being hit or screamed at by an adult. For a lot of us, we had similar experiences when we were children, and when you see that happening to a child, your heart melts for that child. Having the feelings of great compassion and sadness for that child is certainly enough for you to want to not do that to your own kids, and really for everyone you encounter.

The fear experienced by a child who is going through something like that is real. It is a raw unfiltered emotion. Unfortunately, that emotion is not one that a child benefits from. Once that fear is experienced by the child a number of times, the child becomes tainted by these interactions. They "learn" to speak or act in a way that limits these experiences, and once they do that, they are no longer the free beings they were when they entered this dream. This happens at different ages for different kids. Blessed are those parents who do not let their judgments or agenda affect who that child is MEANT to be. The saying "becoming more open" is no accident. When we do this, we are returning to a place we were before, one where we express our emotions and feelings in a forthright but non hurtful manner. We are literally opening so that God can express through us in a very demonstrative way.