Legacy

 

As a parent we want only the best for our children. We want to make sure they have the best education, the sports or arts opportunities we can afford. We wonder will they have my hair or my husband’s? Will they be as tall or short as Grandma? Will they have Uncle Joe’s sense of humor? One thing is for sure -- they will have the burden of our past sins and the sins of our parents and grandparents. What are we going to do for our children’s spiritual life?

We have so many choices to make. What they eat? What the wear? Where they’ll go to school? But do we think about where they’ll worship, what they’ll pray and for whom? Who will they help? Who will help them? Our greatest responsibility as a parent is to make sure we give our children the best spiritual foundation we can, and yet this seems to be the lowest on the list of priorities for many parents. We need to make sure that our children have every opportunity to know God and to fulfill the wonderful, amazing, journey He has planned for them. We need to make sure that we give our children every opportunity to live a life without the struggles and pain that we have experienced due to our mistakes, and the mistakes of our parents and their parents before them.

We want to give our children a spiritual legacy or heritage that’ll be with them for their entire life and the lives of the generations to come. The big question, then, is how do we do that if our heritage is anything be clean? What do we do when our past is filled with pain, brokenness and sin? How do we protect our children from our mistakes and our sins?

The most important thing to accept and to know is that you have control over the generational sins and blessing for your children. You have the power to stop the painful cycle of sin. First, you must accept that you are a sinner and that you need Jesus Christ as your Savior. This is the first step in changing the pattern. You need to recognize that sometimes you are not responsible for the pain that has been in your life. It may have started many generations ago. With each generation the sin/curse becomes more powerful and more painful.

The next and most powerful step in the process of breaking the cycle is probably the hardest and most painful of all. It calls for forgiveness. Sometimes you may need to forgive yourself for the continued cycle, sometimes it will be a grandparent or great grandparent. The main thing is, through prayer and your choice to forgive them of sin you can release the power it holds over you. If you can’t personally face the person, then you need to write it all down, read it out loud, release the power that is being held there.

Satan can’t read your mind or hear your thoughts, but he certainly hears our voice. We need to tell him that we are taking control of this part and all parts of our life. We need to tell him we’re living our life for our Holy Father. We need to tell him that we are turning our back on him and on this part of our life.

There will be times when the temptation is still going to be there. The weakness in that area of your life will always remain, and it will be there for your children. The difference is that now you are aware of it and you can call on the ‘big guns’ when times get tough. Through prayer you’ll have the strength to turn your back on your old way of life. You’ll have a story to share with your children and you’ll be a living example for them. There are no guarantees that they won’t full into sin, but you’ll have laid the foundations of an amazing life for them. You’ll have given them an opportunity that otherwise would have been so much harder for them to receive.

God, the angels and all of the heavens are ready to go into battle for you. You don’t have to do this alone, but you do have to make the decision to start and to make the decision to call them into action.