Do not give up! The Word of God says, “pray and never lose heart” Many children of God are praying as they should do but have not yet found the desire of their hearts. They want to experience durable peace in their families but every now and then uneasiness and squabble is triggered. Do not be discouraged. As long as we are on this journey to Heaven, our situation in this world is one of imperfection; only in heaven shall we have stable peace. One thing the Lord has revealed is that when He comes into a soul or household or church community or religious community or village or country, He wants to have the total freedom to be with this soul or household etc. He has given us all and He wants all, and He says, “I am a jealous God.” Now in some families the parents maybe serving God in spirit and truth and a weed may be growing from some of their children living a life contrary to the pleasure of God, thus inviting contrary spirits in the household. In some other cases, it may be that the husband is serving the Lord in all sincerity,but the wife is cheating or dishonoring God (it could be vice versa, I Cor.6:16) and the spirit of discord has an open door to afflict the peace of the family. It could even be oneself. You may be doing things that please God and, in some moments, allow deeds that you know belong to darkness. In this way, you see your inner peace being tossed up and down.
Some of the weeds in us are not planted by us, for instance, child molestation around the ages of 4-7 (more or less) leave an impact on the beautiful garden of child created with love and for love, with a potentialto diminish the person’sjoy or producing maladjustment behaviors, like moodiness, mistrust, sexual incontinence or pervasion, etc.(Mat.13:25). In some other cases, by no permission of an innocent child, family behavioral traits are passed and embedded within him or her: if these traits are good, glory to God, but if they are ungodly, that persons need to come to Jesus Christ the Source of Goodness, as to be made whole. The Bible is there to instruct us and is the only one book of human history that has been consistent. Joshua said, “as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Josh.24:15). When the family of Israel journeyed to the promise land, among them, certain weeds were planted. We remember Korah, Abiram, and his clan, Dathan and his clan (Num.16), Achan and his clan (Josh.7). They destabilized the peace of the family of Israel as they chose contrary characters, and the whole family experienced peaceless rancor. How can we solve this problem? (see our next post on this topic)
Fr. Ignatius Mary (cmdorg.org)