The OODA Loop and God’s Spiritual Warfare, Part 4
Why then, call this process of salvation a “loop?” Matthew provides an ongoing loop of events which continues after our salvation. That chain of events is our sanctification. We must follow the same process as we face hardships that we first walked through on our faith journey to salvation.
Spiritual warfare is working against the passive “now I’m saved, I don’t have to do anything” attitude.
Hardships end up in one of two possibilities: either we choose to submit ourselves to God’s vision for our lives, passing through the trials with His help, or we choose to cave in to temptation, which leads us away from God. The same loop of events—OODA—is repeated each time we face hardships.
Hardships are either trials or temptations, depending upon our choice to walk with Christ or to depend on our own flawed understanding. First, we have to see the truth of our situation through God’s eyes or our own eyes, through humble dependence on God or prideful rebellion (Mt. 5:3-4). When we are sad because of our sin, we receive the blessing of comfort in forgiveness. We will then have observed truly or we will have fallen for satanic lies.
God’s OODA Loop for Spiritual Victory: Part 1
God’s Spiritual Warfare and the Top Gun winning strategy against migs in Korea have much in common. The Biblical strategy in Mathew 5: 3-10, known as the Beatitudes, is a real winner whether we apply it in warfare, business, education or family problem-solving. If we use it within God’s will, God’s power guarantees a win.
It’s no surprise that the OODA loop—Observe, Orient, Decide and Act—was first formulated in the Beatitudes. Just how does this winning wartime strategy work?
Hidden Agenda in Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga’Hoole
What’s a symbol for? Do people merely react to symbols? Can they recognize how symbols move our feelings, motivating us to act, and then can people thoughtfully consider whether their action is right or not?
Symbols are a brain short-cut: they bypass thinking
Because the flag of the United States is a symbol of all our history, struggles and victories, we have great feeling when we see it. Groups of symbols can quietly manipulate our feelings into, for example, buying a car because it is advertised with a beautiful woman who lovingly touches it. Our subconscious mind thinks, “chick magnet!” Desire is aroused by a symbolic association, without words and without appeals to logic. Read the rest of this entry »
T.V.: Functional Truth is no Truth at all.
Teaching a child to know the difference between fact and opinion.
Technorati Tags:fact,opinion,T.V.,truth,Bill O’Reilly,Dr. Archibald Hart,depression,mental health,emotional health.conflict,thinking skills.
When I was six years old I came home to report a fight at school. “I said there IS a Santa Claus because my Mommy told me and my Mommy doesn’t lie!” If passionate intensity is the measure of truth, I had the truth and knew it.
Child discipline includes discernment training: what is truth?
Unfortunately truth is not that easy to find.
Shiprock Stories: Who Will Build on Your Foundation?
Your action or inaction, planning or failure to plan, all sum up your legacy to your children.
Consider my legacy from my biggest career challenge: teaching delinquents at an alternative high school on the Navajo Reservation. I prayed for weeks and got very frustrated before I was offered that job. Than I didn’t know if I should accept it.
I wanted a job where I could express my faith and lead students in meaningful ways. Should I say “yes?”
After three days of especially intensive prayer by my pastor and friends, I dreamed an odd name.: Zerubbabel.
Making positive change: Problem Two
Does your nine-year-old leave after you tell him to stay home? It is a common event. The problem here is that parents think their leadership skills are good when in fact those skills are ineffective and obsolete. Group dynamics can help the whole family.
Group learning has a big impact.
Knowles and Bradford state that “groups can induce learning in individuals of a kind and depth that an individual teacher cannot, by himself, induce (Knowles & Bradford, 1952, 12).” To expand on that idea: group learning often has more impact than a nagging parent, lecturing or coercing a child into following rules.
The interaction between your child and your family may be more productive with group activities like role playing, buzz groups and reflection, listening teams, and personal summaries of group action. These are big challenges for your leadership.
A Family Plan: dignity, equality, unity
Technorati Tags: family planning, positive peer pressure
How can we create a family of dignity, equal worth and unified purpose? Doing what comes naturally (nothing) will not do it.
As Zig Ziggler said:
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,
How do you plan?
Start with the end, the goal, in sight. That’s good advice from Stephen R. Covey, planning expert (stephencovey.com). If you want to stress-proof your family life, you must make a family plan. Here’s a start.
Consider what we have to know in order to create the best family life.
We need to know what every family member considers most important, and what each person needs to do and be (willing? organized?) in order to get there. Read the rest of this entry »
Stress Buster 1: Setting Boundaries
Bouncing boundaries are perhaps the greatest source of stress in families.
When our children test our limits on their behavior, we have some choices. We may move the boundary (change the rule), enforce the limit (impose consequences), or remove limits altogether.
What effects do these approaches have on children? Read the rest of this entry »
Raising a Cheater
It is easy to do. Raise a child to want success without teaching him or her the skills that bring success.
Make everything easy for your son or daughter. Do chores for them rather than teaching them to do for themselves. Serve them without asking them to serve the family. Let them watch four hours of media every night, the American average.
Those hours are lowering their attention span, making them less able to compete in the world marketplace, and reducing their ability to think logically. (Check out Caleb Crain, the New Yorker Critic at Large ,Twilight of the Books.) This is a recipe for failure. Cut off your child’s thinking skills at the knees by plugging them into media for hours each day.
That will take away self confidence so your daughter does not believe she can achieve without cheating.
Feed your son junk food or let him skip breakfast. Let him go to bed any time, even though the Harvard Sleep Study says children through age eighteen need eight or nine hours of sleep per night in order to learn. (Check out Matthew Walker, October 17, 2002 Harvard University Gazette Archives. Also see Beth Potier, December 11, 2003 of the Harvard University Gazette Archives.)
Intimidate your daughter by criticizing her weak first steps so she will not risk running. Take away your son’s responsibility by saying the teacher is picking on him rather than holding him accountable. Let the children have after school jobs and cars even though their grades are suffering.
Cheating in college is on the rise. The pressure to succeed is great. Give your child tips on how to steal essays from friends, frat brothers and the internet.
If you want a child to cheat, make success everything, the learning process nothing.
Teach your child that he or she is just an accident of nature, so moral behavior is no longer a useful choice. (See Crosswalk.com, Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint 2/29/08)
Your Challenge
Be close to your child. Know his or her attitudes and actions. If a teacher says your child has cheated, use the “worried-concerned” approach. Express your doubts and disappointments quietly and privately, not in front of siblings or friends. Remember that to your child, success is everything. Say, “Son, I don’t think you’re being completely honest on that test.”
Punishment for cheating may or may not help your child.
Remember that your goal is to support the right behavior, preventing a character defect from developing into further lies and loss.
If you want to change the cheating behavior, punishment might only make your child determined not to get caught.
Use Adam and Eve as examples. Adam and Eve appear to be sorry for being caught, not for their own responsibility in their fall. Your honesty as you talk with your child will encourage changes. Shallow, knee-jerk punishment may reinforce a failing, cheating cycle. Decide what you want to happen.
Accusing your child bluntly, ignoring the problem, and emotional reactions will reinforce a failing, cheating cycle.
Instead, realize that needs are not being met. Help your child learn the skills and earn success. Help her assert herself or himself and be responsible in every aspect of family and school life.
Walk with your children through their mine field of uncertainties until they can navigate on their own.
Make sure they are eating right and drinking enough and getting enough rest. The Harvard studies prove that learning is a lot more effective when you sleep on it. Chuck Colson’s research shows that a strong moral foundation prevents cheating.
Parents, go for the gold!
Teaching Money Management / Crime Prevention
Technorati Tags: jail,ministry,rules,consequences,money management,boundaries.
When my sons were pre-teens we had a small jail visitation ministry and they saw first-hand the consequences of writing a lot of bad checks. This experience was very motivational for them, and part of training in conscientiousness (a key element in long life according to research by the U. of California at Riverside, U.C. Berkeley Wellness Letter, Feb. 2004, ).
Consider involving children early in the process of helping you write checks and balance the checkbook. A second grader can help you add and subtract. Grocery shopping is a time you can give cash for your child to pick his or her favorite fruit and vegetables. As soon as computer skills become important to your child, have them watch you with QuickBooks, then watch them as they help you enter expenses, sorting out tax items as you go.
A three or four year-old can learn how you choose what you buy at the market. Soft fruit, green fruit–teaching the gentle squeeze helps with defining what is O.K. for pet handling as well as fruit choices. Unit pricing on the shelf tags can be a learning experience for older children. As soon as children can understand what money is, they can use a dollar to find a toy at the 99-cent store.