On Thursday we began looking at how a stronghold, like insignificance, is built. Yesterday we saw how injustices can be both real and perceived. We may suffer unjustly or we may believe we have suffered unjustly, both affect our lives and whether we walk in our God-given significance or not.
Insignificance, like many sins, can be a learned behavior. It passes from generation to generation. The behavior, the attitudes, the lashing out or holding it all in…we model, whether we’re consciously aware or not, what we see.
When a women has been told all her life she’s not worthy or she’s not capable, she wears that burden on her shoulders her whole life. She may pull herself up by her bootstraps to “prove them wrong,” she may retreat into complacency and quiet because it’s safer to hide from hear than to face it head on, or she may bolster up her defenses and shoot down anyone who comes in her way.
She’s been told she’s insignificant, feed a lie and lived it.
Then she becomes a mother. Those patterns, that living in bondage, doesn’t go away with a splatter of pixie dust. It’s there as she parents in each word and action. The way she looks out the window, how she responds to a need, what blubbers out of her mouth when dinner doesn’t go as planned and a wave of toys spreads across the floor.
The little girl watching…the baby in the highchair, they’re watching and learning. How she responds is, in all likelihood, how they will respond.
When the going gets tough and this young mother heaves a heavy sigh and tightens her load to get the job done instead of handing it to Jesus, then that’s what her children will do.
If she feels slighted or passed over and lashes out in anger, causes a fuss and lets her discontent be known, her children will follow suit.
If she meanders in “woe is me” and “there’s no point, because I couldn’t help anyways,” her children will believe the same.
There’s a song I always think of when I’m struggling with sin, particularly a sin my children see.
Remind me of this with every decision
Generations will reap what I sow
I can pass on a curse or a blessing
To those I will never know
- Sara Groves, Generations
What I do, how I act, how I respond, what I believe–not what I say I believe, but what I truly believe as seen in how I live, that matters. Every minute of the day. A sobering truth.
The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.” Exodus 34:6-7
But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me. Leviticus 26:40
Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands. Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed. Psalm 112:1-2
The decisions I made today have impacted eternity.
I look at my children and I wonder, Am I passing on the Way? Am I living in a way that proclaims the significance of the children of God and our Father? When I’m walking in weakness do they see me reaching for Jesus or lamenting on my own?
I fail more days than I care to count, and thanks be to God for the grace and forgiveness he lavishes on us. But I am sowing what my children will reap…
Am I the mother, wife, woman who will pass on the blessing instead of the curse? Will I be the one to break patterns of generational sin or will I hand it over to them and say, “Deal with it”?
What about you? What will you give the generation that follows?
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Can you believe we’re halfway through 31 Days of Significance?!? It’s been a challenge for me to write everyday, which is evidence by how late this post is! But it’s also been a challenge to be confronted by these truths and not walk in insignificance, to not walk in abiding faith.
I find myself needing my Savior more and more…
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is so powerful. I love the angle with which you brought forth this truth. May my life and heart and past be sprinkled with such grace so that what I give to others is filled with His love & mercies and not my frailties.
Thank you!
Great stuff to think about. Thank you for the encouragement to remember the little eyes that are watching our every move. I pray that I will be faithful to pass on a godly legacy to my children, a legacy of faith, hope, and joy.
Wow…this:
The decisions I made today have impacted eternity.
Great reminder!