Generational Blessings
As all of the ways I keep myself busy got cancelled over the last few weeks, God has tugged on my heart to spend quality time with family. By quality I mean beyond sitting in the same room on a phone not really paying attention to each other. Over the past year, I’ve been able to give excuse after excuse and a plethora of busy moments to explain why I simply could not spend time at home with the people I love the most. The other night my dad randomly decided he wanted to cook the turkey that had been sitting in his freezer. He took it out, let it defrost and then went on to cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner for us to eat, for absolutely no reason at all. We even sat at the dining room table, which if you know my dad is something so rare (he prefers to eat in front of the TV). He’s 67, works in healthcare, is considered an essential worker and has an abundance of health concerns so this whole pandemic has put me a little on edge with how he actually is doing. We got to discuss what work is like, the precautions he takes when going into hospitals and the talk put me at ease. As we ate, talked about other things and I stayed away from my phone we connected in a way we haven’t in a long time.
That moment got me thinking about how we spend such a large majority of our lives trying to heal from trauma we’ve experienced, often times from family, but do we ever take the time to recognize the great qualities we’ve also inherited from our parents and our family? Generational curses are sin/rebellion done by someone in our generational line that continues to afflict us and our family as new generations are born. “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in faith love, forgiving iniquity and rebellion. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generation (Numbers 14:18, CSB). The definition of iniquity is – “immoral or grossly unfair behavior.” This verse is noting that what was done by past generations will stick with future generation and allow for a predisposition of the same behavior. A few examples of generational curses are divorce, sibling rivalry, poverty, manipulation, etc. If you look at the members of your family you will begin to see a pattern of the common struggles faced.
It is often easy to locate the generational curses that we’ve inherited, but can we also spot the generational blessings? Generational blessings are the good things, the things that show God’s favor, that have been passed down the generational line. “Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commands” (Deuteronomy 7:9, CSB). From the time, I was little my father taught me how to serve others. Every weekend he would and still does coach the town Softball clinic, if someone needed something fixed at their house he is the person to call, if I needed to move out or in to an apartment he was always there to help. That trait that I see in myself was nurtured by the way he served others and in him was nurtured by the ways my grandparents served others. Until that moment at the faux Thanksgiving table where God opened up my heart to see clearly, I never correlated this good thing within me to my father. Once that door into these generational blessings was open I began to ask God to reveal other generational blessings that are prevalent in my life. My mother taught me how important the little things are and the value of the words I speak. Growing up for every holiday and I mean every, my mom would get me a card and something special and that was our way to celebrate the day. The cards would always have a message written in them and it is one of my most cherished memories of growing up. It is still something we do to this day and I now get to reciprocate the cards to her. As I’ve gotten older the messages we write each have touched my heart in an unexplainable way and I look forward to the days we choose to celebrate with each other and with love. I get to do this with my friends to celebrate them or just to let them know that I love them. It has nurtured my love of writing and speaking life over people. My mother has constantly spoken life over me even when I may not have been receptive to what was being said and I get to be that way with other people because of her.
These are just a few blessings my parents have given me and as I sit here more keep popping into my head. In a world where seeing the negative side of things is so easy let’s choose gratitude. A song that has been on repeat for me over the last few week is “The Blessing” sung by Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe. The bridge of the song is:
May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children and their children
I pray that you believe and declare, God’s favor and blessing over not only your life but the future generations that you will usher into this world.
In the comments let me know the generational blessings or good qualities that you got from your parents/family!