I read something on a blog yesterday that, had I been drinking a beverage, said beverage would have come out of my nose. I said that, well…….for effect really, but the truth is I laughed hysterically, unable to speak, tears streaming down my face. My husband looked on waiting to hear what was so funny as I guffawed with helpless abandon. A blogger that I follow talked about seeing her young child off on the school bus one morning last week and overhearing another parent put her small child on the bus saying, “don’t give in to Satan.” Excuse me…I’m laughing again.I get that it may not be a real gut buster for you. My husband, while amused, did not understand my extreme mirth. But in my world, my past, it is significant. I may have heard that a few times…Dear God, I may even have said that a few times. My two children are grown now. I don’t know if I used those exact words and I’m not asking them…. Let’s just say they knew more about Satan at a young age than anyone needs to – probably ever.
I don’t deny that there is evil in this world. But I no longer believe in a personal devil. To put it simply, I think that God and his energy is in all of us, good and bad alike. Kind of like the glue that holds everything together. We have choices and we have work to do. The evil is in our humanity – that thing that most of us, no, all of us struggle with on a pretty regular basis. We’re born our own little entity and the whole world revolves around us. We are first as children unable, and later, unwilling or to self-absorbed to look beyond our own little life paradigms. We struggle to gain control over the selfish tendencies that often dominate us. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes give in to the darker side of human nature. In some cases, the result is catastrophic. But the fight is ongoing in all of us. A lot depends on the kind of role models we have adopted or had thrust upon us and even more on our own insights, inner work, and introspection, as well as our relationship with the creator of the universe, however we view that entity.
My daughter, at the age of 7, gave away an expensive Cabbage Patch doll that she had wanted badly because she had heard that they were made by minions of the devil who could possibly speak through them. No, she did not hear this on the playground, but at church. There was actually a sermon in our church about Cabbage Patch Dolls (I never bought in to that one). But she heard it from one of the children in youth church whose mother had her burn her Cabbage Patch doll because of the brouhaha about the dolls and because the kid thought the doll had spoken to her. Oy! My daughter didn’t tell me she had dispatched the evil doll for quite awhile because she thought I might be upset about it. That little red headed doll, Alena Diane, cost $30 on sale in 1984 – a lot of money for our young family at the time. But when I did find out, it wasn't the cost that upset me. It was that my little girl had been robbed of the simple joy of receiving a doll she had wanted and loved.
But back to my main point: So, if the little kid messes up, did the devil make him do it? What I really want to say is how bad I feel for that poor little tyke getting on the bus to school to learn letters, numbers and socialization, and having to battle Satan as well during that busy day. Ugh! The worst thing Satan has done in that case is steal what should be a carefree time of childhood that is way too short to begin with.
