True Love vs. Deceitful Love

This has been a topic on my mind quite a bit lately.  There's also a proverb that goes along with this.  Proverbs 27:6 says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.  This is to say, of course, that a friend will tell the truth, even if it hurts or he or she risks losing the friendship, but a false friend will put on a front so that the other person will like him or her, but that "friend" really does so just to be liked or to collect information to hurt that person or other persons.

This is something I've been talking to with my firstborn son Jaden William.  Another thing upon which I've meditated for quite some time is whether I should call him by his first name.  He went by William from his birth until about a year and a half ago, when he desired to be called the shortened "Will."  I had not liked Will before, just because I didn't like the "sound" of it, but it ended up being okay.  Then probably about ten months or so ago, he requested that he be called Jaden.  I'd originally wanted to call him Jaden, but his father thought it sounded like a girl name.  He was going to be named Jaden regardless of whether he was a boy or a girl, because the name means "thankful" or "God has heard," because God answered my prayer by allowing me to conceive and bring forth a healthy baby after suffering a miscarriage with my first pregnancy.  William is the middle name of my husband, and I liked that name.  My husband also likes the name, and he has continued to call him William. 

It was during the pregnancy of my fourth-born child and first daughter, Olivia, now nearly eight months of age, that my son requested to be called by his first name.  I told him I didn't want him changing back and forth and that I would call him by what he likes out of respect toward him, but I didn't want him to change his mind again a few months down the road.  Though I'd always liked "Jaden" and had originally wanted to call him that, I then did not want to do so, because I realized an important message with the names of my three living children (including the baby I was carrying, which I knew via God's Spirit was a girl I was to name Olivia)--Will[iam], Trust[en], and  [O]Liv[ia].  God's will is for us to trust in Jesus so we shall live.  It would be a constant reminder to me.  

I've been explaining to William that what often seems like love toward him by others is really just things they do for him or toward him so that they will gain his [ignorant and unknowing] child favor, even if those things are not truly loving, as defined by the Law of God.  So, I started thinking perhaps even I, in calling him Jaden, have tried pleasing him too much.  Now, I'd had that thought from the very start, when I agreed to call him that, because I thought, "It may be thought that I'm catering to him too highly," but I truly felt like I was doing the respectful thing.  For months, though, I've been torn between continuing to call him Jaden and Will/William.  I've called him Jaden mostly or simply "Jade."  I now have decided to stop predominately calling him by Jaden.  I don't think it's meant to be, as I continue to be tormented in spirit by it.  He's supposed to be called Will.  That's what I believe.  

He's been upset that I've not called him Jade/Jaden, but I truly love my son, and that is the correct thing to call him.  

So after all my instructing on true love vs. deceitful love, about which there has been much to say, I found myself in somewhat guilt, thinking the name issue has indeed fallen under this.  

Some of the things I've recently taught my children concerning true love vs. deceitful love is when someone gives them food that is health-harming but tastes good, since some food that tastes good is really bad.  It's deceitful food.  I've also taught about deceitful smells and feels.  Other things include letting children engage in dangerous activities or see inappropriate movies.  They may think the adult is loving them, but it's a deceitful love.   What about giving them too many toys?  This is another deceitful thing, because it teaches them to love things more than people.  

Of course, there are many other examples, and it doesn't apply only to adults toward children.  There are many forms of deceitful love out there.  Many people are deceived into thinking false love is real love and that true love is a deceitful love.  Many think God's Law is a wretched thing, when truly it shows love that a Good Father has for his children.  

The next time you feel loved, stop and ask yourself.  Is it a true act of love or a deceitful one?  Can you tell the difference?                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Sole Entertainment or Lessons Learned?

My firstborn son Jaden, nearly seven, said he wanted to watch a Care Bears movie that his three-year-old brother has, on the sabbath day, and perceiving that I'd likely reject their watching that movie on the sabbath day, he said, "It's teaching caring." 

So I said, "Well, okay, that's wonderful.  I love caring.  Caring is good.  If it teaches you, then, how to be loving and caring, then I can find no lawful reason against it.  So, does that mean you are going to be more caring toward your little brother?  He likes it much more when you're caring than when you're mean." 

He said the movie would help him do that.  I asked him how long it had been since he told his little brother he loved him, and he said about a month, though I don't think it's been that long.  Nevertheless, I said, "A month?  You tell me every day."  (In reality, many times every day.) 

I continued, "You should tell him right now that you love him.  And hug him, too."  When he did, Trusten hugged him bag, and I could tell by his face that he loved Jaden hugging him.  I said so.  I told Jaden that Trusten was loving back, when Jade loves him, but Trusten's mean in return, when Jaden is mean to him.  Hugs, not pushes! 

"Jaden," I said, "you should always get a lesson out of something you watch, because if you do not, then it's not worth watching.  It shouldn't be there to solely entertain."

Then it hit me.  I've wondered for some time how people are so blinded about everything, when even the stories people dream up (people record these dreams/fantasies as books and movies) and are broadcast to an audience of millions upon millions do nothing to change them.  Those who are deep thinkers, who meditate upon things and are looking to grow in knowledge for good, learn lessons from what they watch, otherwise they stop watching it as not to waste their time or pollute themselves.  There was a movie not too long ago that my husband and I watched, though I cannot remember the title, which we both thought was rather stupid from the beginning, and within mere minutes into it, I said, "There's just no way we can watch this entire thing.  It's far too stupid and not even very funny."  Nathan agreed, and we did something else.  We'd just rented it online, so it was a bit of money spent, but better to waste only money than waste both money and time.  Both are only temporary, and wisdom and knowledge are superior.

It's still difficult for me to understand, because I'm just not that way, but it's very apparent to me now that people are out for sole entertainment, and somehow they walk away from movies without learning anything to improve their lives or the lives of others.  They learn no lessons.  These people would likely even say there were no lessons to learn or of which to be reminded.  They just do not exercise their brains by thinking.  There is no real meditation in the minds of the millions of people residing within this nation, Israel-Manasseh-United States, those of both Israel and the aliens in our borders.  That must be the reason why everything has to have excessive sex (including the dress code), violence, profane language, etc.  I'm starting to catch on, to see how these people are missing the actual STORY, the actual DREAM that the writer had and that they're viewing.  They're not getting anything from it, because they're thinking of how "hot" a certain actor or actress is or how hilarious the sex jokes are or how great the excessive shooting and car crashings are (not to mention far-fetched as to all the things these people go through without being killed).  That's all they must be thinking the whole time! 

Oh, it's no wonder!  And see, the story's message, the actual lesson learned (regardless of whether the original writer even knew he had a lesson to teach), could get across without all that excessive broadcasting lusts of the flesh, except the movies would not sell that way, because there is such a small audience that is learning from these things.  The greater percentage of the audience are those who want to see sin, the lusts of the flesh, and so those who are producing the movie make sure to give heavy doses of it.  The downside is that those who actually learn lessons and grow in knowledge from these stories/dreams is that we have to be exposed more to the filthy nature of our sinful population.  Many things that the majority of the population, including most who identify themselves as Christians, see as fine, those of us who are faithful believers who meditate on things see as abominable.

Israel, Israel. YOU, Manasseh--United States--those of you with an Anglo-Saxon (Israelite, "Brit-ish," Hebrew for "covenant man") blood line and also those of you who are aliens with our borders who fear the Most High God, do you love this world and the lusts of the flesh, or do you have your hopes and priority on the world to come, the true New World Order that Christ will establish at his return?  Are you being solely entertained by SIN, by lusts of the flesh, or do you BEAR with the abominable sights of sin as you grow in grace and knowledge?