Childhood can be difficult enough, even if you grow up in the best of circumstances.
Truth is, some of us didn’t have the luxury of growing up in an environment that was always safe and secure. Others of us who did have a pretty good upbringing still have some things we’d like to forget when it comes to our childhood and youth.
There are probably very few who had a more difficult set of circumstances thrust upon them in their formative years than Daniel and his friends. Yet the book of Daniel is an overcomer’s story. It is a fascinating account of how young Daniel and his friends had to reinvent themselves in order to survive.
Taken from their homes against their will and transplanted in a foreign land with foreign customs and culture demanded they make adjustments. It is the story of HOW Daniel and his friends adjusted that gives us great spiritual insight into making changes in our own lives to counteract adverse experiences.
This is the first sermon in the series "Reinventing Your Life". In this first installment we’re going to see how the scriptures deal with how we can overcome childhood experiences.
1. To overcome childhood experiences we must establish and develop good character.
The basic theme in this first chapter of Daniel’s narrative is CHARACTER. Daniel reinvented his life in a new land amidst the trappings of a new culture because he possessed and matured in an area in which each of us must grow in if we are to overcome our past.
Daniel and his friends were in their early to late teens. The king of Babylon had taken control over the physical location of their bodies and subsequently desired control of their mind and will as well.
He assigns each of them new names - names that are associated with the idolatrous gods of Babylon. He has them taught in the new language of their captors. He desires their complete conformity because he knows that if you can mold a person when he is young you have a greater chance of keeping them in that mold throughout life!
Studies have shown that the earlier in life you begin a bad habit the more difficult it is to discontinue that habit later in life. By the power of God any bad habit can be broken no matter how old you are or how long you’ve been engaged in it, but never beginning a bad habit in the first place is the best policy. This is why parents and grandparents cannot afford to grow complacent about the influences and habits of their children.
Do everything that you can to instill good habits in your children in order to encourage them not to begin bad ones. Habits are the building blocks of character.
In Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography he makes no apology for his firm belief in God and how the principles of the Bible shaped his early life. Franklin did not consider himself a Christian because he never made a personal faith commitment to Christ, but he did believe in the practical value of many Christian teachings.
Franklin said he always remembered a verse of Scripture that his father often quoted to him in his printing shop in Boston. Proverbs 22:29 - "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings..." Franklin claims that because of the habit of diligent labor his father taught him, he succeeded where others had failed. He opened his own printer’s shop in Philadelphia at age 17 and became so successful he eventually became one of the most respected men in the American colonies. And yes, as the scripture verse says, he did stand before kings - five of them in all! Why? Because a father instilled a godly habit in his son in the days of his youth.
Noted author on leadership John Maxwell tells of a policy of his father that made a lifelong impact on him. When he was growing up, his minister father never paid his kids an allowance for doing chores. It was his belief that you took out the trash or washed the dishes because you were a member of the family and had responsibility like everyone else.
If you wanted an allowance you had to read for it! Maxwell’s father gave his children a list of books and said, "For every book on this list you complete I will pay you so much money." Maxwell, who is one of the best-known motivational speakers in the world today testifies, "It was that one habit instilled in me by my father that made all the difference in the world in my life!"
King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon knew this principle. Even though his heart and motives were not godly, he knew the value of shaping the young mind and will. These young leaders in Daniel chapter one, who would have become princes in their own land, are set aside to be brainwashed and assimilated into the mainstream of a way of life that would alter their hopes for spiritual equilibrium.
The plan was wickedly diabolical and would have been effective had it not been for one thing - character. There was a moral force - integrity - woven into the basic fabric of these young men’s lives. They would not allow themselves to be swept away in the sea of peer pressure or political correctness. Someone got to them before Nebuchadnezzar did - most likely their parents - and changed their perspective on how to relate to challenges in life.
Several years ago the twelve-year-old, homeschooled Missouri seventh grader George Thampy won the National Spelling Bee and $10,000. He also placed second in the National Geography Bee, winning him another $15,000. His father was asked what he thought of his son’s accomplishments. He replied, "We’re not proud because he won the contests or the money, we’re proud because he has character."
Of all the things we need to live well-adjusted lives, character is fundamental. If we suffer from experiences in childhood and youth that combat us even today, our first tool of recovery is to establish and develop good character. To respond to our problems correctly, as Daniel and his friends did, we must decide to live by conviction rather than convenience. We must be determined to live our lives with integrity rather than surrender to our circumstances. But be advised, the traps that test our character can be very subtle.
Daniel and his associates were away from their parents at an impressionable age - but not to a concentration camp, not with a whip to their backs. We find them in the palace. Intelligent young people given books and teachers, promised promotion if they will only fall into line. Careers in leadership, positions of authority, advancement, treatment as aristocrats was all at their fingertips if they only acquiesced to the will of the godless king.
The contest for our characer is seldom on an ugly battlefield of blood and gore. More often it is in the classroom and the conference room. It is in our living rooms and at the keyboards of our computers and with the remote controls of our TV sets. It is in our conversation and choice of close associates.
The Babylonian king wanted his captives alienated while they were young. His plan to do so called for an appeal to everything that would make life pleasant to them. But the pleasant way and the right way are not always the same way.
Which leads us to our next principle for overcoming childhood experiences.
2. To overcome childhood experiences we must guard against negative influences.
If we are to face life’s obstacles (past or present) successfully, we must guard the influences in life over which we have control.
There are many things in life over which we have no control. This was the starting block for Daniel. But he did not allow it to be his finishing line.
The sad biography of many people’s lives is that they go with the flow. They stop fighting back. They give in to life’s storms and let the winds blow them wherever they will. They label themselves victims. Discouragement and hopelessness set in and people begin to see life as a flailing effort to simply keep one’s head above water. They let others dictate their way of life.
Thank God there is more to life than that! We don’t have to retain a victim mentality.
Daniel didn’t protest learning a new language. The scriptures don’t record that he and his friends even objected to the new names given them. Didn’t matter to them what you called them - they knew who they were. But when confronted with a new diet, Daniel would not conform.
Travelers abroad often say that the most difficult adjustments in travel are not the change in climate, or the different customs, or the different culture, but it is the differences in food that are literally hard to swallow.
You can change a lot of things about your life, but changing how you eat and what you eat can be the most difficult. Ask any dieter.
The king wanted to change their eating and drinking habits because he knew this was one of the strongest connections to their old way of life.
Apparently there was also something about this new menu that didn’t concur with Daniel’s religious convictions. He had made up his mind ahead of time that he wasn’t going to "defile" himself with the diet offered from the king’s kitchen. (Daniel 1:8)
You’ll find the word "defile" littered across the pages of the Old Testament. For conscientious Jews like Daniel, to eat certain foods or be involved in certain practices would denegrate their spirituality and desecrate their relationship to God. Daniel had some lines in his life he wouldn’t cross - not even for the king.
Ever had someone say to you how much he or she admires your religion and how glad they are that it has worked for you, but to them, religion is a private matter? Nebuchadnezzar would have laughed at that, because to him, all of life was permeated by one’s religion. Every meal in the royal palace was a holy meal. The meals in the palace of Babylonia were even presided over by the idolatrous priests and they gave thanks to their gods for their food. Young Daniel realized that his participation in this system would have been tantamount to worshipping idols. So he drew the line. He would not be unfaithful to Jehovah. He would not allow himself to be manipulated or exploited.
Even the WAY Daniel drew his line offers insight. He kept a cooperative spirit. He tried to work with the boss. He didn’t just ditch the plan he was given, he also suggested an alternative plan. He didn’t stomp his feet and raise his voice; he simply said, "Put us on a ten-day trial diet and see if we don’t do fine."
They did! They not only did fine, they did better than their counterparts who ate at the king’s dining hall. Guarding against negative influences made them stronger - not weaker.
Their ability to stand on conviction comes from the third insight into overcoming childhood experiences.
3. To overcome childhood experiences we must change our attitude about adversity.
Once again, this chapter is about character. Character is something which cannot be developed if the environment is free of adversity. The sum total of our lives is not what happens to us, but rather, how we view and respond to what happens to us.
Take the sisal plant that grows in Mexico in hard, stony soil. Its fibers are used to make strong twine or rope. Some American businessmen visted the area and decided some good money could be made by growing the crop in richer soil under better growing conditions. So they started a sisal plantation in Florida where the plant found life no longer a struggle for survival and grew to enormous size. The business promised tremendous returns until the time came for reaping. It was then that the leaf from which the vital fiber came for the twine collapsed into a soft pulp. The tough fiber quality was missing. They learned too late that the sisal plant acquired its toughness by its battle with adverse circumstances.
Would Daniel have been the great man of God he became if he had never been snatched from his home and family against his will? Would he have ascended to the visionary greatness of receiving some of the most remarkable prophecies in the Word of God? Would we read about him if he had blended in with the scenery of Babylonia and chose to conform rather than stand up to adversity?
If the experiences of our lives have been difficult then it will be our attitude toward them that determines our destiny. With the help of God we can kick the self-defeating habits of thinking and behaving negavtively. We can establish new habits that will enable us to rise above the adversities of our lives. We can reinvent ourselves according to God’s precepts. We can choose to live by character rather than convenience.
The reinvented version of ourselves will enable us to overcome anything from our past, present, or future.
