"God doesn't love me! I'm a bad boy! I mean I'm REALLY bad! He doesn't love me! Nobody does!"... These were the passionate words spoken by one of the little boys at the Ranch the other day. He had gotten into trouble and was doing a chore when these words came tumbling out in a moment of disgust. "Oh, God does love you", I replied, "He says so in His word. He loves you so much, He sent His son to die for you... and I love you too!". "No you don't! God can't love me either!", he replied. Over and over this little boys insisted that God couldn't love him because he was bad, and over and over I spoke truth to him. "God's word says we are all bad. It says we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...that's why Jesus came".....
One of the goals we have at the ranch is getting the children to "talk" out their feelings instead of "acting" them out. We help them identify one of the five feelings they are having, glad, sad, mad, scared, ashamed, and then put it into a sentence; "My heart feels mad because...". This helps them learn express the way they feel so they can get it out with words, not negative actions. We have been working with this little guy a while trying to get him to identify and talk out his feelings that he had kept bottled inside for so long, and had been coming out in negative behavior.
....A little while later, as he was bent over doing his chore, I reached out and rubbed his back. He said, "Why are you doing that?" I answered, "I'm rubbing my love into your heart!". With that he smiled. There was a long time of quiet and all of sudden, he looked up at me and said, "Lovable...". I answered, "Lovable? What do you mean?" He said, "My heart feels lovable!" Praise the Lord! Pray that the Lord would continue working in his heart and all the hearts of the children at King's Ranch!
