Many times, merely living from day to day takes up all our energy and attention. We may not have attention left to consider how our lives may impact our children. And yet, careless living may leave a legacy that harms children. That makes it critical to think of the generational consequence of an act before we go into it. Especially if we truly love our children and want a good life for them.
This may sound confusing and exclusive if you do not have children for one or another reason. You may be too young or you may have decided that children are not for you. Or else, you may be having problems in that area of your life. For whatever reason, you are starting to feel that this piece has nothing to do with you.
Not true. Don’t forget that you are someone’s child. Someone who might have left you a less-than-salutary legacy. It might be manifesting in your life as we speak. Unfortunately, the apple never seems to fall too far from the tree. For instance, an unwed mother leaves a legacy of marital woes or no marriage at all.
You Might Have Inherited A Legacy that Harms Children
If you find yourself in a situation where your parents’ legacy is negatively impacting your life, you have one option. Become chummy with God. He alone has the power to replace your legacy and foundation. That is because He is not only the Omega, He is also the Alpha. He knows what about your foundation that needs to be fixed. Not only that, He alone has the power to fix it.
Once you give Him permission for full sway in your life, He uproots all the foundation of the harmful legacy. He next replaces it with all the good things that He represents. There is light, purity, kindness, love, long-suffering, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Somewhere, the bible collectively refers to these qualities as the fruit of the Spirit.
You will then find that the legacy that harms children is no longer yours. You inherit a brand-new legacy. To those who are parents, the forgoing might seem like a digression. Not really because the God we know is an inclusive God. He loved the world so much (the entire world, not just parents or children) that He died for it. And we who claim to follow Him cannot afford to be exclusive or selfish.
Additionally, addressing the non-parents may alert parents to the cause of whatever negative things are occurring in their children’s lives. We all need a post like this to point out the link between our life and our children’s life. Otherwise, you may go through life without making the connection. And without that connection, you will not know what to do to remedy or how to live to prevent it.
The King Who Left A Legacy That Harms Children
Take King Ahab as an example. He and his wife, Jezebel were simply living their lives as best they knew how. They did what kings and queens did. A bit more aggressively perhaps but not completely out of the ordinary. And yet, in that doing, they were creating a legacy that they would leave behind. Just like we all do, without giving the future a second thought. But in their own case, they were busy building a negative legacy.
Let us take a moment to examine what happened, in hopes of avoiding it in our own situation. The man was weak and the bible describes him as sullen. Am I sullen? Am I weak? Are you? I have to answer mine just as you have to answer yours. In any case, the man was weak and often sullen.
On the other hand, the wife had a strong personality and a domineering spirit. Every situation and person around her simply had to bow to her will. Nowhere in her calculation was the will of God. The combination described above is a recipe for catastrophe both in the present and in the future. The purpose of this piece is that we should do whatever we need to do to avoid such a calamity.
The King Escaped His Own Legacy
And while it is possible to escape the negative impact of a legacy in the present, that may not be true for the future. That is what happened to King Ahab. He and his wife had collaborated to sow some very negative seeds, including murder. And God determined to visit terrible disaster on the entire family.
However, when the prophet gave him the Lord’s caution, he repented. The king tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his body humbled himself, fasted and went about mourning. When God saw such humility in an otherwise atrocious life, God declared that He would defer the planned calamity.
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He went further to make the scariest statement, copied here for emphasis. God said, “In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.” Ouch!
His Son Could Not Escape A Legacy That Harms Children
The planned calamity would only come in the days of the king’s son. How terrible for the man, like Ahab’s son, who inherits a legacy that harms children. Ahab built the legacy and it was the children that suffered the calamity. What a pity! And what was the calamity that God planned for this family?
God pronounced “in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours. Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free.” God would make his house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.
That sure sounded like a major calamity but since the father had repented, it only landed on the children. And although Jezebel was a princess and deserved a decent burial, she did not get it. Just like the word of God said, dogs ate Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Just because she and her husband left a legacy that harms children.
As for the children themselves, the army slaughtered all seventy of them in one day. And then they sent their heads in a basket to the city as a show. A show that the word of God will never go unfulfilled. I pray that we shall not have anything to do with a legacy that harms children.
Maranatha!
Thanks for this profound and important message. Spiritual food for deep thought
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