The Adjustments of Life
Greetings, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has shared many revelations of spiritual truth with me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we explore the meaning of the adjustments of life.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Adjustments of Life
Jesus said, "Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come." John, Chapter 16, Verse 31
Brothers and sisters, this morning we discuss the adjustments of life. As we move though life, we are required to make constant adjustments to the demands of life. Life is not static, but continually changing. Even the so-called successes as well as so-called failures require adjustment. We shall look at the various stages of life, how they are characterized, the challenges they present, and how we overcome those challenges.
The first stage of life may be thought of as the pre-stage. In this stage, a sperm and an ovum, unite to form a human begin. This newly formed human being is not recognized as such during the early stages of development within the womb, but as the growth continues, the developing human being takes on the form that we recognize as being human. This process takes about nine months. During this growth process, the human being proceeds from the embryo where the various organs are differentiated; then begins the fetal stage.
This is the stage where are the organs of the human being are perfected and continues the process of growth, looking towards the day when it is able to exists in the outside world, to live a separate existence from the mother. At the end of this stage of fetal growth, the child is ejected into the world. Here the child begin the next stage of life-infancy
The stage of infancy lasts for twelve months. During this period, the child continues the growth and development. He learns to roll over, to sit up, to crawl, and finally to walk, and begins to utter some words. The brain continues to develop. At the end of this year, the child enters the toddler stage.
During this stage, the child continues to make progress in control over his body, gains control over his excretory functions. He perfects his walking, now runs, continues development of speech. The child increasingly becomes autonomous. This stage lasts until the child is about five years of age.
The child now has develop to the point where he now begins his formal intellectual training. He enters the child hood period. During this period the child in additions to his intellectual training begins the socialization process, the process of adjusting himself to others outside his immediate family. Up to this point the child has led a purely selfish existence. He may had done some sharing due to the urging of his parents, but this was not a voluntary choice originating within the child itself as a result of reflection. Now being that long long process of liberating himself from his purely animal nature. The child’s begins to show evidence of a moral nature. He begins to discriminate between two levels of conduct, between right and wrong, between the choices of self and the choice sponsored by the divine spirit. This is a new experience for the child, and signals a new dimension of reality for the growing child. From this point on the child’s life will be filled with situations requiring choices between good and evil now that has become aware of two ways of doing things-his way or the Father’s way.
The indwelling of the divine spirit in the mind of the child gives rise to the joint creation of a soul. This soul is designed to survive the material life, and grows in proportion to his choosing good over evil, choosing the Father’s will over his own. This is the first stage of the work of the divine spirit in the mind of the child. This particular phase of association with the divine spirit lasts for the period beginning when the child makes it first moral decision, about five years old and extends until he reaches about twenty years old.
During this period the divine spirit endeavors to change the self derived thoughts to divine derived thoughts, selfish thoughts to unselfish thoughts. This period also covers childhood through adolescent that stormy period intervening between childhood and young adult hood. Here the child is faced with multitudinous adjustments as he learns to coordinate his newly discovered emotional and intellectual life of this period. This period is witnesses the rise of the romantic and reproductive emotions, those emotions that lead to mating and consequently offspring.
After having completed the stormy period of adolescence, relative maturity sets in, and the young adult is now mature enough to assume adult responsibility, including parenting. This brings about another intense period of adjustment as he/she adjusts to intimacy with the opposite sex. And this is a turbulent period of trying to adjust to each other. There are many casualties of marriage during this period. Currently the divorce rate is running about fifty percent, leaving children to be raised for all intents of purposes by a single parent.
Though most try to maintain some kind of relationship with the offspring, the offspring is deprived of that continuous influence provided by both parents who reside together. And even this intermittent contact is often derailed as one of the parents move to distant areas which make parenting difficult if not impossible for the parent who is away. This single parenting leaves a lot to be desired and is far far away from the ideal of parenting which requires two parents in union to provide continuous parenting for their offspring, providing the example of how to adjust to and mediate differences between male and female. The father and the mother also models the correct image of father and mother for their offspring, for when the children seek mates of their own, they are likely to seek a mate like their parents, and relates to each other as their parents did. You can immediately see the problem with single parenting, even though in some unfortunate situation it can not be helped.
During this period, the young adult has to adjust to subordinating his personal desires for the good of the offspring. He has to move further and further away from selfish regard in his thinking and actions. This period constitute a serious conflict in adjustment from self to the needs of other selves, and this is the reason that so many unions fail. One or both parties refuse to rise to the demands of the situation. To some extent this period ushers in some disillusionment as the strong romantic and idealistic feelings begin to fade, and it is at such time, that many couples begin to ask themselves what has gone wrong. Why has the spark gone out? But the spark does not go out all of sudden. It is a more or less a gradually fading spark which should be replaced by the reciprocating lasting divine affection. It is the failure to follow these leadings of the divine spirit that kills the good will in the relationship that was initially sponsored by the romantic feelings that unravels some unions.
During this period from about twenty years to about sixty years, about forty years, roughly paralleling the rearing of offspring, the divine spirit begins the process of elevating spirit derived concepts to higher and higher levels of divinity, seeking to reach supreme levels. If the couple follows these elevations of thoughts they will make the adjustment from a selfish concept of relationships to an unselfish one.
And in the process, they will discover something wonderful-the emanations of love the divine spirit. As they seek to love one another unselfishly, they will discover that in process they are revealing the love of the Father to each other. This discovery adds a new dimension to their relationship as they begin to enjoy a new unity of union. By this time spiritual evolution in their lives has brought about remarkable changes and adjustments in their lives.
At the end of this period, which roughly coincides with the release from immediate parenting, though there is still some overlap, the divine spirit begins to seal the spirit derived concepts at supreme levels. This period begins at about the age of sixty and extends until the mortal is released from the flesh. For those who follow these leadings, it is marvelous experience in self understanding, self actualization, and divine spirit discovery.
During this period the middle aged adult has become settled in life, has matured, and understands the purpose of life. He has acquired that wisdom as a result of wrestling with the trials and tribulation of life. It is also during this period that the mortal begins to sense his material decline but this is antidoted by the rise of his spiritual nature as he begins to identify more and more with his spiritual life and less and less with his material life. He is beginning that slow process of complete identification with his spiritual self which takes place at the conclusion of his sojourn in the flesh.
Usually prior to release from the flesh, there is a period of reflection, and unifying past experience that is made possible by the release from gainful employment. The adjustments during the final phase of this stage can be difficult as he slowly watches his mortal life run down, often complicated by the infirmities of age.
But he has also become more and more aware of the divine life growing within himself, and this causes him a great deal of satisfaction, a satisfaction derived from having lived well. As he looks back over his life, he is pleased, and says that life has been good. During the changes of life, he has also evolved in his religious life. His prayers have evolved from petitions of favor, through petitions of thanksgiving to that high plateau of worship-that state of divine oneness.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meanings of the adjustments to life. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
The Adjustments of Life
