All people have experienced childhood hurts, albeit some more than others. None-the-less, we have all had them. Whether it is a lack of children’s developmental skills, a lack of adults recognizing the need to help them, or both ~ childhood hurts do not go away on their own. We can stifle those wounds at times, accuse and try to convince the perpetrator of their error, exhaust ourselves emotionally, cry a spell and think it’s better now, etc. But, it isn’t.
We have all heard it said of children, “They’ll get over it.” In a little while, they will be playing again; which leads us to believe that statement is true. But, it isn’t. We could be 90 years old and still not have gotten over it ~ which is sure to be relived, again, as minds regress.
If you happen to be in the grocery store, see a child accidentally cause an orange to drop to the floor (if you see that child get smacked, or even if you don’t) and it brings back a reminder in your childhood ~ that hurt is still there. Sometimes, trigger words will bring back a memory. Other times, it will be an event. But, any and every time a memory is triggered more than once (being it months or years apart), that wound is still there.
As adults, we can often find understanding for other’s failures; they were having a bad day, they may not have fully understood the significance of their error, or just anything. And, even when we can’t otherwise reason, we come to learn the importance of forgiving, for our own benefit.
However, when children are wounded, (as a rule) adults do not help them to understand. They may not have offered the reassuring hug that lets that child know they are still loved. Adults probably did not teach that child in the area of praying for our enemies and they may not have defended them at all.
Often times, adults were just ignorant of the child’s spiritual need. But, many times, too ~ adults did not treat children with the same respect as they would others. Physical and verbal lashings often gave blows to children when they weren’t even the culprit. Then, there were those occasions where adults had no business rearing children at all. tri cycle