KEYWORDS: spirit, lord, things, people, maria

Problem Child, A

David Berg

DFO 166411/83

—Comments on an Interview.

[HomeARC note (10/98): Some of this discussion covers this young man's life before he joined the Family.]

1. THAT SPIRIT IS REALLY TRYING TO COVER ITS TRACKS‚ THAT'S FOR SURE! So it's a very deceitful spirit, but in spite of all its attempts to be good to keep from getting caught, it certainly reveals itself every now & then with fits of rage & outbursts of various kinds & a bad spirit about things. But it also shows that he can be good if he wants to bad enough & tries hard enough, but at the same time, unless he gets rid of that, with it always lurking there, it's apt to burst forth again & is a constant risk or at the very least a problem.

2. I WONDER IF YOU ACT TOO FAMILIAR WITH HIM, TOO PAMPERING? You seem a little too familiar with him, & "Familiarity breeds contempt." You can't be a good leader & be too familiar, especially in the case of women leaders with men. To keep their respect you've got to keep them most of the time at a little distance.

3. IT'S ONE OF THE PROBLEMS OF HAVING CHILDREN SO LATE IN LIFE, YOU TEND TO SPOIL THEM. He said his father retired a few years ago at the age of 70, so he must be just about 80 now! It's almost now like he is relishing telling his life story, sort of like he relishes the past! I don't think we ever had anybody go into such detail of his childhood! He's more relaxed on this video, whereas on the other one he was more on the defensive! I never heard anyone give so many details on his childhood! It's almost as though he has a nostalgia for his childhood.

4. HE'S NOT ONLY CHILDISH, HE'S SOMETIMES SHALLOW. His parents could have adopted the other boy to sort of bring him out, because he was so introverted & may have been a little peculiar. Maybe they thought the other little boy would help him & also probably be his playmate. But it didn't turn out that way, obviously. To adopt a child that old, four or five years of age, I mean the child has already had his original training & programming & it's very unlikely that they would have changed him much. It depends on where he was reared‚ whether it was with his family, an orphanage or what. He must have been really jealous of him‚ so he obviously was not the influence on him that they had hoped. He makes sort of a joke when asked to tell about his breaking time.—I wonder why?

5. YOU HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL WHILE ADOPTING CHILDREN WHO ARE APT TO BE VEHICLES & BRING SPIRITS WITH THEM. It could have been that that adopted brother brought that spirit along.

6. THIS SORT OF ABSOLUTE NON–STOP TALKING IS RATHER CHARACTERISTIC OF SOME FORMS OF MENTAL DISTURBANCE when they just talk & talk & talk. Now I talk a lot too but I usually take others into it & want some response & ask questions‚ but he seems just completely filled with himself. (Maria: Maybe they just said OK‚ we're just going to let you sort of talk & tell whatever comes into your mind.) I guess that was the idea.

7. WE SHOULD HAVE GIVEN THEM A FEW QUESTIONS TO ASK HIM instead of just talking about all these tiny details of his childhood, but it tells something about him, that he's really full of himself & more nostalgic for his childhood, talking, talking, talking about himself. Talking a lot can also be a cover-up sometimes too.

8. IT SOUNDS LIKE HE IS USED TO TALKING TO A PSYCHIATRIST, pouring out every little detail. This sort of talk is the stuff that psychiatrists want you to talk about. It's the kind of talk that the psychological profession encourages; they want you to talk all about your childhood because they emphasise that your whole personality & your whole nature & your whole life is governed by what happened to you as a child, so they encourage you to keep on talking, talking about your childhood, about how your parents treated you & everything, & this is just the sort of thing he's done. So he could've been a psycho case.

9. (MARIA: AND THEN AS SOON AS YOU MADE THIS, THE PRECEDING COMMENT, HE OPENED HIS MOUTH & SAID HE HAD HAD TO GO TO A PSYCHIATRIST AT THE AGE OF 11 & HE'D HAD A BREAKDOWN AT THE AGE OF 16!) Later when he was a little bit older‚ 16 he says he thinks‚ he went to another psychiatrist & had to take some brainwave tests, tests to see what was wrong with him. So obviously he's had mental problems.

10. HE EVIDENTLY GOT BITTER OVER THAT GIRL that broke his heart in high school at the age of 16 & ended up in a mental hospital two or three times. Apparently that's where he became bitter & cynical after this experience with the girl, & why he still hates women sometimes.

11. HE'S NOT REALLY TELLING THE THINGS WE REALLY NEED TO KNOW, LIKE WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIM? WHY DID HE HAVE TO GO TO THE MENTAL HOSPITAL? What were his behavioural characteristics that caused them to have to put him in a mental hospital, three times he says‚ & see psychiatrists for weeks at a time?—And had to go to a psychiatrist from the time he was 11 years old! It must have been pretty serious. He's not saying what it was or what his peculiarities were nor what his behaviour pattern was. (Maria: Yes, he's attributing all his problems to shyness & introversion.) You wouldn't send a guy to a psychiatric hospital for that! He's not really describing really any of his peculiar behaviour that landed him there.

12. HE SAID HE ALMOST DIED ONE TIME & if he hadn't been taken to the doctors he would have died, but he doesn't say what it was. He's inferring that most people didn't look up to him because he was so childish, even people his own age. He must have really been a weirdo! He certainly always has been with us. …

13. HE SEEMS TO ALMOST BLANK OUT SOMETIMES. How did he know these things about spirits? If he had nothing to do with them or didn't know anything about them, how did he know that candle flames get long when there's a spirit in the room? It sounds to me like he was quite into that sort of thing. (Maria: Do they get long?) I don't know, I never heard that before. Where did he get those ideas about candles & flames & spirits & things?

14. HOW MANY KIDS COME IN AT 3 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING & PUT THEIR STEREO ON LOUD? Most kids come in at 3 o'clock in the morning, sneak in & try to be quiet so their folks wouldn't know that they've been out so late. If you ask me that's really weird, really weird.

15. I GUESS HIS PARENTS MUST HAVE BEEN SO DESPERATE ABOUT HIS BEHAVIOUR that any calming influence like [his young girlfriend] that would cause him to act normal, even sexually, they were thankful for! But the idea of an 18-year-old boy being in bed with a [young] girl, most parents would have been horrified at & they'd have at least been afraid they were going to get in trouble! (Maria: Well, he said she looked 16, so maybe they didn't know, but it seems like they would have known.)

16. THAT'S TYPICAL OF THE WAY YOU TREAT A MENTAL PATIENT, YOU TRY NOT TO CROSS THEM‚ try not to offend them, nearly always humour them to try to keep the peace, lest you have some kind of an explosion if you cross them or anything. Apparently they were scared stiff of his behaviour. That's really strange that the parents would have been so afraid to ask him questions or cross him or anything. He must have really had mental problems & they were afraid to upset him. They were super friendly to any kind of friends he brought over, probably because they were just trying to humour him no matter what kind of friends he had, hippies, druggies & whatnot! It sounded like from the family history of her family that the mother was not Jewish & it was her church, but it's his father's side that is apparently Jewish.

17. SO YOU SEE IT WASN'T JUST HIS WIFE THAT HAD THE PROBLEM. They were both mental cases, maybe he caused her to be, who knows? He might have caused her to be worse off than she was to begin with. They might have shared their spirits‚ co-op. He's been a real mental case in the past, that's for sure.

18. IT'S A TYPICAL CHARACTERISTIC OF SOME FORMS OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR, THEY TALK INCESSANTLY ABOUT THEMSELVES. It's like nothing could have pleased him better than to have her sit down & have him talk about nothing but himself.

19. THE QUESTIONER MUST BE REALLY ON THE BALL WHEN THEY'RE TRYING TO FIND OUT THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE—ASK QUESTIONS. Like people on TV, interviewers on TV, they keep firing questions at them to find out this & why that. She should have asked him why his folks sent him to a psychiatrist, & why they had to send him to a mental hospital. What did he do? What was wrong with his behaviour? I guess she thought she was supposed to just sit there & listen. But when you come to parts of people's story where you need to know items in greater detail, you need to stop them & ask them.

20. THAT'S ALWAYS A SIGN OF ABNORMALITY, UNCONCERN ABOUT OTHERS & SELF-CENTERED. It's just amazing to me nobody ever found it out before!—All his experiences with psychiatrists. I mean he was really a problem case!

21. I THINK HE ALMOST WON MY HEART ON THIS LAST TALK where he said how much he loves us & how much we mean to him. (Maria: If he started having severe problems before he was 11 when he was young, it's got to be somebody else's fault‚ it wasn't his fault‚ so you really can't blame him that much. Plus, after he joined the Family it must have obviously made a huge difference in him, his parents must have realised it, so therefore he must have gotten saved & he maybe got filled with the Spirit. But do you think he could have had that spirit bothering him all this time ever since then?—Even though he did get saved & he did get changed?)

22. MAYBE IF THEY'D COME RIGHT OUT, FLAT OUT & TELL HIM THE THING THAT'S BEEN CAUSING ALL THE TROUBLE IS A REAL THORN IN THE SPIRIT, so to speak, a messenger of Satan that's been buffeting him, a real annoyer, sort of a besetting spirit‚ a spirit that's really tried to ruin him.

23. BLESS HIS HEART!—HE WON MY HEART WITH THAT VIDEO. IT MADE ME FEEL SORRY FOR HIM.—Makes me feel like trying to have a little more patience with him‚ considering from whence he's come & how far he's come‚ he's stuck pretty well. Also I was going back over all of his art today thinking how long & hard he's worked & what a good job he's done & how faithful he's been & how well he tried to do what I told him to do, & I think the Lord laid a little more pity on my heart for him, to have a little more patience with him.

24. BUT HE'S JUST GOT TO SHOW MORE LOVE TO THOSE AROUND HIM & BE KINDER TO PEOPLE, not so critical & cynical & so sharp-tongued. He really hurts feelings. He needs to guard that sharp tongue & quit digging people with it till they actually cry!

25. (MARIA: IS HE ACTUALLY DEMON–POSSESSED?) YOU'RE NOT POSSESSED UNTIL YOU CAN NO LONGER CONTROL YOURSELF, until your own spirit is no longer dominant & you're under the complete or total control of another spirit. (Maria: I don't think you've ever brought that point out before. We've always been a little hazy about Christians, that they can't be possessed, but we've never really brought out what possession actually is.)

26. YOU CAN CERTAINLY BE ANNOYED BY PESTERING SPIRITS just like you can be tempted by the Devil, just like the rest of the Devil's pests! (Maria: In other words, you can even have a spirit trying to speak through your mouth but not be possessed?) Yes. You can even have the wrong spirit speak through your mouth sometimes & inspire you to say the wrong things.—But not necessarily be completely possessed.

27. IT'S A TEMPORARY THING, LIKE FLYING OFF THE HANDLE IN A RAGE SAYING THINGS YOU'RE LATER SORRY FOR & that you know you shouldn't have said. He seems to be a lot like that. He does things & says things on the spur of the moment that he knows afterwards he shouldn't have & then he says he's sorry. Well, lots of people do that, most of us have done it sometime.

28. IT'S KIND OF LIKE THAT CURSE, KAROL'S CURSE, IN "GOD'S CURSES!" (No.1647), an annoying little devil that brings a thing like that as a hinderer, hindering spirits. It's the evil spirit that brings such curses, but she had to take a specific definite all-out stand against it & a special prayer, & I think they had some fasting too, didn't they, to get rid of it?

29. AFTER MACHOWSKI WAS DELIVERED FROM THAT EVIL SPIRIT, Tom—in fact he was never really actually possessed but he just was in communication with him—Tom hung around a long time annoying him & pestering him & saying things to him & trying to get him to do bad things. So finally Mr. Machowski took a stand against him & rebuked him in the name of the Lord & he left. He entered into a drunk standing there listening to Mr. Machowski witnessing on the street corner, & the drunk fell down & had a fit right there! And Machowski just said he knew that was Tom & that he was gone forever, he'd found another host!

30. (MARIA: BUT EVEN IF HE WASN'T IN HIM POSSESSING HIM, HE WAS THERE, so he entered into somebody else. Maybe he can be in you‚ but not possessing you, because look at the spirit that tries to talk through him. It's sort of like we wonder whether it's inside you or on the outside, but maybe that's not the distinction to make? That's not where you should make the distinction, whether it's just sort of an external or internal pest.)

31. THE DISTINCTION, THE DIFFERENCE IS AS TO WHAT DEGREE YOU ALLOW HIM TO CONTROL & RULE OVER YOUR LIFE. It's like my Grandmother used to say, she used to say this about temptations & evil thoughts, "You can't keep the birds from flying over your head nor those thoughts from going through your mind. It's the voice of the Devil. But you can sure keep them from building a nest in your hair!"—In other words, roosting there & entertaining them full time & letting them take over. You just have to keep resisting & fighting until they see you're not going to surrender or give up‚ & they give up & go away & leave.

32. APPARENTLY HE'S BEEN PESTERED BY THAT THING FOR A LONG TIME, MAYBE SINCE HIS CHILDHOOD. (Maria: It sounds like it.) They just need to have special prayer & exorcise the situation & get rid of the spirit once & for all. It's not that it possesses him or that he's filled with an evil spirit, because he obviously has a good spirit & loves the Lord & is trying to serve the Lord the best he can, but that little mischievous devil just keeps bothering him & makes him do things & say things he shouldn't, & hurt other peoples' feelings.

33. OF COURSE IT'S THE OLD STORY THAT THE DEVIL HAS TO HAVE A PLACE TO GET IN & WE LET THE ENEMY IN SOMETIMES through our own sins, our own shortcomings, our own vices, selfishness‚ jealousy or bitterness‚ murmuring‚ all kinds of ways to let the Devil in, & apparently sometimes he has indulged in some of those things to where he's just sort of sometimes let the Devil have his way. I'm sorry he didn't go into a little greater detail in just what form & what nature his psychological problems took in his early childhood & later when he had to go to the mental hospital, & just why & what form did that behaviour take, etc. We might've been able to analyse it a little better just from what was going on. But I think I've got a pretty good estimate of the situation.

34. I BELIEVE HE'S SINCERE‚ IT'S QUITE EVIDENT HE'S SINCERE & HE WANTS TO DO RIGHT. He's a little bit like the fellow who said to the Lord, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief!" (Mk.9:24) He's inclined‚ over the years of disappointments & disillusionments, to be a little sceptical & cynical & embittered because of the people who failed him. (Maria: Plus he's been very spoiled.) Yes, because of his talent mostly, but starting with his childhood of course. His parents spoiled him because of his affliction. He obviously had something wrong with him, he was not only a physical weakling but apparently somewhat of a mental weakling as well, or he wouldn't have had all those mental troubles.

35. HE'S SORT OF BEEN, MAYBE HE'S WHAT THE BIBLE CALLS A LITTLE FEEBLEMINDED. (1Thes.5:14) As a result he never really matured, he sort of stayed like a child, childish, he's still quite backward & childish. And you almost have to treat him like a child, humour him up to a certain point like a child & not expect too much of him to really have feelings of adult responsibility.

36. HE TAKES WELL TO MOTHERING & APPRECIATES THE GIRLS THAT SORT OF MOTHER HIM‚ but then when they don't indulge in this pampering & spoiling him, he gets resentful like a little spoiled child. Mama won't do what he wants her to do or let him do what he wants to do, so he throws a fit or a tantrum, in which case he just needs to be dealt with with a very firm hand & a lot of love & patience, considering his handicap.

37. IT'S REALLY A HANDICAP, which requires a certain amount of tolerance & indulgence & humouring, but only up to a certain tolerable point beyond which he shouldn't be allowed to go & things he shouldn't be allowed to get away with, just like a child.—Just like a child whose parents sometimes will sort of humour him & let him get by with a few little things as long as he doesn't get too rowdy or rambunctious or noisy. But when he goes a little too far & really presses their patience to the limit, then they've got to take a hand, a firm hand & really sit down on him & make him obey.

38. HE'S ALMOST LIKE A LITTLE BOY THAT JUST NEVER GREW UP, IS RETARDED. In a way he's definitely handicapped. He's been self-centred & spoiled so many years. It just isn't exactly his habit to think about others or to be unselfish & thoughtful of their needs. (Maria: That's really a habit, isn't it, as well as other things? It's also a habit that you have to cultivate, to be unselfish.) Yes, definitely.

39. (MARIA: SO SCHIZOPHRENIA THEN IS NOT DEMON POSSESSION, OR IS IT?) Well, like everything, it's sort of to what degree? It's like the camel's nose. You keep letting that thing in off & on just like Mother Eve's sister-in-law did until finally it just took over. She said she knew she was allowing it to come in & do those freaky things, but by & by she realised that it had taken over & she no longer had control & she was under its control instead of able to control it. It was controlling her, & that's what I'd call full demon possession, when they no longer have any self–control but the demon can just come & go at will & do whatever it wants or make them do whatever it wants.

40. I THINK HE'S BEEN PESTERED FOR A GOOD MANY YEARS NOW BY THAT SPIRIT, or maybe even other spirits, because he was very sensitive spiritually, & they look around for people like that. He was very sensitive in the Spirit regarding the Lord‚ very tenderhearted, very sensitive to the leadings of the Holy Spirit & very yielded to the Lord time & again, but people who are like that have to be very cautious that they don't yield to the wrong influences & spirits.

41. PEOPLE WHO ARE VERY SUSCEPTIBLE TO SPIRITS MUST BE VERY PRAYERFUL, LIKE WOMEN. Women were made to yield & surrender. That's why they make such good mediums & such good wives & good spiritual channels, which is fine as long as it's the right spirit. But they also often are easily overcome by evil spirits because of their spiritual sensitivity & natural proclivity to yield & surrender. So people who are of a very sensitive spiritual nature have to be very cautious that they don't yield to the Enemy & the wrong spirits.

42. (MARIA: CAN A PERSON BE BOTH PESTERED BY EVIL SPIRITS BUT ALSO BE HELPED BY GOOD SPIRITS AT THE SAME TIME?) Oh‚ I think so!—By all means! I have no doubt about that. I don't doubt that all those years the Lord was trying to protect him, obviously. He said all those terrible things that happened to his brother never happened to him, he was always protected from accidents, from all kinds of things & he just knew it was the Lord & his guardian angel. (Maria: Plus he's probably had a lot of good spirit helpers with his work. But at the same time, some of the bad ones must have gotten in too, like when they showed up in some of his work.) Yes‚ when he's in the wrong spirit, in the wrong mood, & out of the Lord's Spirit.

43. HE CAN BE VERY INSPIRED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, but then if he gets upset or goes off on a tangent or somebody aggravates him or something, he gets very easily into the wrong spirit. This is very typical of people who have mental problems. They get very easily upset‚ very easily aggravated, annoyed, inclined to a tantrum or a rage very easily, often very nervous & get upset easily, largely because they are rather weak in the spirit & susceptible to spiritual influences‚ so the only way they can avoid being influenced by the wrong spirit is to stay very close to the Lord & very full of His Spirit. Let the Light in so brightly that the darkness finds no place to hide & will flee away!

44. HE JUST NEEDS TO KEEP FULL OF THE WORD & THE LORD & THE HOLY SPIRIT & BUSY WITH THE LORD'S WORK & not allow the Devil to throw him a Mickey & get him off the track. Apparently he can't take liquor, so I think he just almost ought to be forbidden to drink‚ because it was through drink that he had some of his most severe problems before, & also now in his present location.

45. HE'S A VERY PRECIOUS VESSEL OF THE LORD & OBVIOUSLY HAS A VERY PRECIOUS GIFT & TALENT FROM THE LORD that has for years manifested itself even since his childhood, which shows it was a gift, for "every good & perfect gift cometh down from Above" (Jam.1:17), & therefore he just needs extra special care & handling & lots of TLC, Tender Loving Care & patience & guidance & to be kept under very strong positive spiritual influence & a firm disciplinary hand that won't put up with any foolishness but will still be patient & realise that he's almost retarded & needs to be treated almost like a child or a teenager.

46. HE APPARENTLY NEVER GOT OUT OF THAT VERY DIFFICULT & HARD-TO-DISCIPLINE TEENAGE STAGE, due to his problems & mental difficulties & all. He never seemed to outgrow it, & only the Lord has been able to help him overcome it. It's a wonder he ever did survive in the Family, some of the hardships & things that he had to go through‚ especially places like the Ranch & probably some other places, because I don't think we really discovered his gift until he got to London & he started working with Ho. But of course that was such an outstanding gift & so valuable, that "a man's gifts make room for him" as the Scripture says (Pro.18:16), & they certainly made room for him, when in some ways they might not have put up with him.

47. SO IF HE'LL JUST STICK TO HIS WORK & HIS GIFT & THE RIGHT INSPIRATION, HE CAN BE VERY USEFUL TO THE LORD & SHOULD BE VERY HAPPY & CONTENTED & FULFILLED & feel like he's really accomplishing, really doing something for the Lord. I think most of his work has been very good. He only got off the track a few times, mostly when he was stubborn & disobedient & insisted on doing things his way, & of course that didn't pay & the Lord didn't bless it, & as a result, while he was in that bad spirit, he didn't do good work.

48. HE REALLY NEEDS TO STAY CLOSE TO THE LORD & THE LORD'S PEOPLE & IN THE WORD & TO REALLY RESIST & REBUKE THE DEVIL when he tries to come in like a flood, & ask the Spirit of God to raise a standard against him! (Isa.59:19) Resist him so he'll flee from him (Jam.4:7) when he has those temptations to be irritable & out of sorts & ugly & say & do ugly things. He sort of unfolds like a little flower to a dear motherly sympathetic soul & that's the kind of personal attention & nurturing that he really thrives on & he really eats it up & seems to need it & he really needs to be loved.

49. HE'S NOT ALWAYS VERY LOVABLE, AS SOME OF HIS GIRLS HAVE FOUND OUT. He can be real mean & cantankerous & even cruel & has been known to even abuse them when he's angry, but he needs to resist that evil spirit & just give no place to the Devil! (Eph.4:27) That's a good Scripture because that shows you can sometimes give the Devil place & room to operate & get in without necessarily being taken over, completely taken over or possessed. You can just give him so much territory. But believe you me, he'll sure use it, whatever he can get ahold of, including his tongue & his sharp critical spirit & violent abuse of others, etc.!

50. HE NEEDS TO KEEP VERY VERY HUMBLE & TRY EXTRA HARD TO BE SWEET‚ because he's not seemingly naturally very sweet to others & that's been his main problem, his being unable to get along with other people, & he admits it. That's why he's really got to work on it. If he's going to be of any use to the Lord & if his talent is going to be used‚ he's got to be completely yielded to the Lord & not keep letting the Devil in to influence him & his talent & his behaviour. He's got to do his best to behave himself & be on his best behaviour to try to be a good boy‚ so he doesn't let the Devil in & throw him & lead him astray. We'll just have to try to use a lot of love & patience & give him a chance & wait & see & hope that he makes it & can be used for the Lord along with his talent. He has been for years & I don't see why he couldn't be again. So praise the Lord! TYJ! Jesus never fails!—If he'll give Him a chance!

51. THE VIDEO REALLY HELPED ME BE SORRY FOR HIM, to see how many handicaps he had to overcome & considering how far he's come. In spite of all his problems he has managed to make it this far, so let's hope he can make it the rest of the way. I believe that his Home can probably help him make it.

52. SOME OF THE FAMILY MEMBERS THAT DON'T KNOW HIM VERY WELL DON'T REALISE HIS PROBLEMS & HANDICAPS & expect him to be a mature older member of the Family because he's been around so long & known so much top leadership & all that, & so they figure he must be one of the real top strong leaders. So they're shocked to find out he's nothing but a babe spiritually, still a babe, even mentally! So that seems to bother them‚ hurt them & upset them‚ whereas if they would just take him as he is‚ that he's an immature teenage child who never grew up, never matured, who is quite backward & retarded spiritually, really a spiritual dwarf in a way, a retarded spiritual child‚ they could probably stand him a little better & humour him a little more & be a little more patient with him & not expect so much of him, but still not let him get away with anything either.

53. —SORT OF LIKE A MONGOLOID, THEY CAN BE TRAINED & TAUGHT & DISCIPLINED & EVEN GET SAVED & FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT & BE CONCERNED ABOUT OTHERS! I've known some very sweet Mongoloids, but they took an awful lot of love & patience by someone who took care of them for years. His co-workers have just got to recognise that he's handicapped & retarded spiritually, an immature babe, & they need to treat him as such‚ be very patient & loving & very teaching & with firm discipline.—But nevertheless not let him get away with anything without reprimand & correction.

54. SO WE'LL JUST HAVE TO DO OUR BEST & WAIT & SEE how he does on this latest project. I think he can do it if we have lots of love & patience with him, but at the same time sit on him, make him do what he's told, what he's supposed to do. Some folks have gotten fed up with him, like a number of people that he worshipped in his lifetime that he became disappointed & disillusioned in & very bitter against. He's really a very pitiful case & he just needs a lot of help. That's why no woman could ever stand to live with him very long because they expected him to be a man & to grow up, but he insisted on being a little child & expected to be pampered & babied by his women like mothers, so they've all gotten fed up with him sooner or later & left him. They just couldn't stand to live with him with his petty nature & temper tantrums & his immature childish behaviour.

55. SO THEY'RE JUST GOING TO SORT OF HAVE TO TAKE HIM WHERE HE'S AT, AS A GREAT BIG BABY, & they're just going to have to baby him & not expect too much of him, but maybe he's growing a little. Maybe with a little more time & tender loving care he'll grow a little & grow up a little, maybe even grow out of it. Meanwhile we'll just have to sort of prune it & dig around it & dung it & give it another year to see if it won't do better & be more fruitful. (Lk.13:8-9)

56. I ALWAYS FOUND THE BEST WAY TO GET ALONG WITH MENTAL PATIENTS WAS TO HUMOUR THEM AS MUCH AS YOU COULD, WITHOUT LETTING THEM GO TOO FAR. But there always comes a place where you have to call a halt & put a stop to something just like with a little child, & usually if you put your foot down firmly & they know you mean business, then they'll simmer down. But you have to be definite & firm about it & very clear about it, what you will put up with & what you won't stand, set down very clear lines of limitation & requirements of obedience. Warn them in advance what you won't put up with & how far they can go, & tolerate no further, let them know you really mean business & you're going to enforce it, just like you would with a little child.

57. SO IT LOOKS LIKE HIS SHEPHERDESS IS A GOOD MOTHER & MAYBE HIS SHEPHERD CAN BE A GOOD FATHER, & LET'S HOPE THEY CAN HANDLE HIM, BECAUSE THIS IS JUST ABOUT HIS LAST CHANCE. I don't think anybody else has been ever able to put up with him for very long. Let's do hope he can make it this time. I'm sure with the Lord's help, if he'll give the Lord a chance, the Lord will help him make it, but it'll take the Lord‚ he can't do it on his own. He has to have a lot of help‚ but he has to be willing to be helped & obey & give some cooperation to his helpers. Amen?—And try not to be an insufferable trial that nobody can stand!—Amen? GBAKY & help you not to be that way!—Amen?—In Jesus' name, amen!—ILY!—D.