I wonder how many children out there were on the receiving end of Dr. James Dobson's 'The Strong Willed Child.' I was. I can't tell you what's in it because I've never read it, but my mom sure did.
Why the 'Strong Willed Child'? Do parents want weak-willed children? How silly is that? The problem doesn't lie in the strength of the will, but in the ability of the child to be persuaded to go along with the parent's will. Seems to me Dr. Dobson should write a book about the strong willed parent. ;)
Just like God is a three part being, so are we; we are spirit, soul and body. The spirit is the part that becomes new at salvation, the soul consists of our mind, will and emotions and becomes more like Jesus through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The process of maturing as a Christian is getting all three parts to act in harmony with each other and with the Spirit. We are supposed to be just like Jesus; all human and all God. :)
The Church tends to view the parts of the soul like a child looking at an assorted box of donuts. We love the intellect, snub the emotions and ignore the will.
God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden for a reason. He was offering choice. The ability to choose is what makes us like Him. The ability to see good choices and bad choices. We are not slaves or robots. We are free and powerful.
God made us emotional because He is. He is passionate and jealous, compassionate and kind, angry and loving. It is possible to have the full gamut of emotions and still honor each other and ourselves. Emotions make life worth living. We love Him because He first loved us.
He fashioned our intellects with the same characteristics that He has; the desire to know, to create, to impact and to grow. While Jesus was crazily emotional, it is His thoughts that impact me the most. If you read His words about the Kingdom, and how He interacted with His disciples and with the Pharisees, you can see how anointed His intellect is. Jesus is brilliant.
The most misunderstood and misaligned part of the soul is the will. Our entire culture including Church culture either subverts it, glosses over it, dominates it or just convinces you that you don't have one with the crazy weapon called victimization. We are not responsible because we have no power. Or there's the other side of the coin in which you use your will to take power from others.
Your biggest weapon as a child of God is your ability to control yourself. We misunderstand self control. It is not Nazi-like self discipline. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is something that is grown in us. Our definition is influenced by our culture's values of body fat percentage, recycling, tolerance and silent politics. I don't think God would ever write a diet book because it wouldn't sell. The entire point of fasting in the OT was to get to the feasting. Physically and spiritually.
Jesus gives us a great picture of Holy Spirit self control. He drank wine, made wine for drunk people, hung out with sinners and corrected the religious leaders. All while pleasing His Father.
It is possible to talk about sex, politics and religion and honor your Father and others. It is possible to eat a cookie without eating two dozen. It is possible to have a couple beers and not get drunk. This is about what is important to you, and learning who you are. You are a son of God, and you have power. You have a brilliant mind, a rainbow of emotions, and a CRAZY STRONG WILL!!!! Use it wisely. ;)
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