Chapter Six

Facing The Dragons

GROWING UP IS DEALING WITH THE HANGUPS YOU GET FROM GROWING UP; WHEN YOU DO NOT......., THEY GROW INTO DRAGONS!!

What is it that dragons do? They devour, they steal all your treasure, and they cinder the land. Nothing grows. It becomes a
wasteland. The number of dragons inhabiting your land will be wide and varied from others. However, they are all cousins.

Learning to take your land can be work, especially if it is full of squatters and dragons. They are squatters because they have
no rights to be on the land, and they are dragons because they devour, steal your treasure and burn your land.

Yet all is not hopeless, we have help and hope for a good future. I hide God's word in my heart, and in the parable of the sower, the seed is the word of God. The seed in the parable that falls on good land grows. If I hide the seed in my heart, then I am the land.

You are a pioneer, this is foreign land, wild, unkempt. There are some who have land that is cultivated a little, but there is
still wild land. If left to remain wild, it can grow into no good thing. Yet, learn to clear the land, pull up all that hinders
growth, cultivate it, harvest it, and then the land is productive.

It takes work, are you willing?

You can go buy all the tools you want, but if you do not know how to use them or do not choose to use them, clearing your land will be hard and impossible. Add to that dragons, and owning that piece of land can get right down scary. You can not go live elsewhere because there is no life to be built elsewhere. You were given this land by lot, and it is what you have.

What are you going to do?

The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly of the Lord, even the events [that seem accidental] are really ordered by
Him. (Prov.16: 33)Amp.

For affliction comes not forth from the dust, neither does trouble spring forth out of the ground; but man is born to
trouble as the sparks and flame fly upward. (Job.5: 6,7)Amp.

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, and you
must master it. (Gen.4: 7) Amp.

As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all those who trust and take refuge in Him.
(2 Samuel 22: 31) Amp.

At this point, I must speak of the realities of life. In order to understand why and how such things that were done to me, I had
to study all sorts of subjects. It took a while to form a picture of a man and his history, yet with constant input and questioning, I got the picture.

It is a blessing to me to be born at this time in history. I certainly would not have lasted long in any other time. It is
easy to bemoan life, to become bitter, a pessimist. Like water, it becomes the easy attitude to life, taking the easiest
understanding. Basic.

Life chewed at me. That is a reality. It left many deficiencies and holes in our understanding of life and people. The deficiencies come out in the handling of life. Try to just "live life."

There are no tools of communication or understanding of people. Become a parent, husband, wife and have no understanding of real love, real commitment and what do you get? Chaos in life that spills over to everything it touches.

Life is still chewing at me. Yes, life is calmer. I am no longer raped and beaten physically, yet these things chew. The
results of past actions rise up constantly in life. What to do, what to do?

I call it "sheer cussedness."

The ability to bite down and fight no matter what. To not allow the destruction of the dragons on my land to devour me. Sheer cussedness. Stubbornness. Not only will I not physically give up my life. I will not mentally or emotionally.

When these things rise up and cost and cost, what shall I do but fight? There is no choice. You are standing against the wall. There is a massive tank coming toward you, a mine field is on your left and a sniper up the trees to your right. You can not say you do not have a choice. You may not like your choices but they are what they are. So can life be the same. You may not get blown up by the mines and maybe you will. You might get past the sniper and maybe you won't. Definitely won't get past the tanker because infantry are behind it. Choice.

Love it, hate it, it is there. If life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you do with it; then.

Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope you in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my help and my God. (Psalm 42: 5) Amp.

f you seek Wisdom as silver, and search for skillful and godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures; A: Then you will understand the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of [our omniscient]God.

SOURCE

For the Lord gives skillful and godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

PROMISE

He hides away sound and godly Wisdom and stores it for the righteous, those who are upright and in right standing with Him; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly and in integrity.

WHY

That He may guard the paths of justice. Yes, He preserves the way of His saints.

SO THAT

Then you will understand righteousness, justice and fair dealing [in every area and relation]; yes, you will understand every good path.

WHEN

For skillful and godly Wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to you; discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you.

WHY
. To deliver you from the way of evil and the evil man, from men who speak perverse things and are liars, men who forsake
the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice to do evil and delight in the perverseness of
evil, who are crooked in their ways, wayward and devious in their paths.

When life is rough as a child, we can easily become full of fears, hatred, and wrong thinking. Life can make one tough, but not
the God tough we need to be. Being tough in the world becomes a hardness of heart, a cynical mind and a lack of trust for others. "I will survive despite" attitude.

Jesus is God's kind of tough. "I will love despite" attitude to the point of opening His arms willingly to lay on the cross and
die for my meanness, hatred, and madness. Who is the harder tough?

To learn to enjoy a sunrise or sunset. To enjoy the sound of children and learn laughter and humour. To take a chance to
befriend someone, help someone, or care for someone. To see God in the moment-by-moment life situations and to know you are not alone.

Then, as we allow ourselves to see ourselves, it is not in despair but in hope. I may be warped, but I have come to know
the original Designer. By His Spirit, I may be restored to wholeness and newness. With that in mind, is it really so
terrifying to face the dragons devouring your land?

Chapter Six

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Facing The Dragons