Healing parent-child alienation

"The turnaround was gradual, but today her parents feel she couldn't be a more loving and thoughtful daughter."

By Robert A. Johnson

What a different world we would live in if we all lived by the Psalmist's words "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Ps. 133:1)

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out that way. Families do not always dwell together in unity. What causes the indifference, or even hostility, that sometimes springs up? It couldn't be God. God is never indifferent or hostile to anyone or anything. He has no favorites. His love shines equally on all.

If God is not the cause of indifference or estrangement, then what is? The basic cause is believing that man is separated from God—that man was first created spiritually, wholly obedient to God, the one Mind that made him, but was then recreated from dust with a mind of his own. This latter man was not the true image of God, Spirit. The image of God would not act contrary to God's will. The account in the Bible of Cain slaying his brother Abel was an early act of alienation, not the action of man made as God's image (see Gen. 4:8-13).

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