Breaking Generational Curses

 Maybe it was naive of me to think that generational curses could be broken.... 

Deuteronomy 30:19 says that "I have put before you life and death, blessings and curses." 

Exodus 34:7 states that God will punish the sins of the father to the 3rd and 4th generation...

All my life I have said that I would not do things the way that my father did them, that I was going to break the generational curse played out in my dad's life and his dad's life. And maybe even further back than that. 

 As my namesake says in Joshua 24:15 "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." That's all I've wanted. To build a home- a family, a lineage- that serves the Lord, that stands in faith, that doesn't shrink back in the face of hard times...

But maybe I was naive to think that I could control what happens simply because it was something that I was committed to. What happens when a generational curse from outside your line begins to affect things, as well?

I don't know what to think at this point... How do I break a curse that doesn't come from my line? How do I establish the example that my kids need? Maybe all I can do is all I can do.

What I do know is that we each have a responsibility to say: from this point forward, as long as it is up to me, I will change the course of my family line- we will serve the Lord- no matter what. 

That is really the point of the vows we make in a covenant before God: even in the worst times, I will make sure my family is serving the Lord; even in the lean times, in the poor times, in the miserable times. Even when I am no longer on the mountaintop high, I will serve the Lord and set that generational example for my family before the Lord.

Worn and Weary

 

A journal entry from November of 2007: 

 

"Father, I am worn and weary."  

 

Followed with these scriptures: 

 

"He chose to give us birth through the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created." (James 1:18)

 

and

 

"Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you." (James 1:21)

 

We are saved, we are redeemed, we are revitalized by our time in the Word. 

 

If I'm worn and weary, have I spent enough time in the Word in order to become revitalized by the Word of God?  

Dipping down into the deep waters of the Word of Truth is where I find the rest and health that I need to restore my soul, where my soul can become that first fruit, that ready offering to my Lord, that it needs to be. 

Immersing myself in the Word makes it so much easier to put aside the filth that the world piles on me, which is what makes me worn and weary in the first place.

God doesn't always provide me with immediate renewal of health and vitality, but He does provide me with the tools necessary for that renewal of faith.