We are all influenced by our upbringing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
My work with the Amachi program (mentoring children of incarcerated inmates) and the Inside/Out Dad program in the Fayette County Detention Center has taught me several things, and among them is that the family you grow up with can either be a conduit of blessing or a conduit of sin.
God's word states that "the sins of the father are visited upon the children," and I can attest to the validity of that statement. One of the inmates in my Inside/Out Dad class had fourteen children by eleven different women. Bad? Actually, he's the success story in the family- he was one of twenty children that his father had by nineteen different women.
That cycle of sin was all he knew. It became a death spiral that dragged him down without him even knowing it. He was simply carrying on what he had been shown by his father.
And so it goes with all of us- there are cycles of sin that all families contain, and we have the opportunity and the obligation to identify and break as many of those as we can. If divorce is a cycle of sin in your family, and you grew up in a divorced home, you can resolve to be the last one in your family to grow up in a divorced home. It stops with you. No more. You will break the cycle of divorce that was passed down to you by your parents, and probably their parents, and you will establish wholeness in your family from this point forward.
If drug addiction is a cycle of sin in your family, you have the same opportunity. You can break that cycle, that vicious death spiral, and be set free to bless your future family with wholeness in the name of God. If bitterness, or criticism, or unforgiveness, (or whatever your family's cycle of sin is) is affecting you, you can be the last one in your family to experience it. You can break that cycle by the power of the Holy Spirit and set your family, or future family, on the course to blessing by God.
Because cycles of blessing are just as much a part of families as cycles of sin are.
A faithful family- a family devoted to the Word of God- many times will continue that blessing from generation to generation. As I was celebrating Thanksgiving with my family, I reflected over the fact that nowhere in the history of my family is there one instance of divorce. My parents, my wife's parents, all our grandparents, our great-grandparents, and as far back as anyone can remember- they were all married for life. Please don't think I am bragging. I am astounded, actually. I realize how rare that is, and I don't take it for granted. The cycle of blessing- the cycle of wholeness in families, has been passed down. Someone far back in my ancestry decided to make marriage a priority and to tough it out through thick and thin, and began a cycle of blessing that continues today.
Today, I attended the celebration of an adoption. As I was talking with her adoptive parents, who were overjoyed at the fact that the sweet little girl is now theirs, I heard the story of where she came from. It was nothing but brokenness- drug addiction, siblings by multiple fathers, no stability, no trust, no safety. This sweet little girl was going to grow up in that environment and was most likely going to repeat the cycle of sin and brokenness, because that's all she would have ever known.
Adoption breaks that death spiral cycle. This sweet little girl now has a loving home- loving parents who are committed in Godly marriage, three siblings by those same married parents, no drugs, no violence, no threat of the state taking away the children. This little girl has been uprooted out of a dysfunctional story, one with a very probable terrible ending, and has been transplanted into a story where she actually has a chance at peace, wholeness, and love.
I am extremely pro-adoption. Witnessing the events of today make me even more so. Looking at the chance that this little girl has now leaves me no doubt that this is the right thing to do. The death spiral cycle of sin, abuse, neglect, and crime have been completely erased from her life, and now she has what every child wants- a loving home and two loving parents.
There is so much brokenness in this world- there are more than 7000 children in the foster care system in Kentucky alone. This family adopted one child. You may say that isn't much. 1/7000th is a pretty small number.
I'm reminded of the story of a man walking on the beach at low tide. He saw scattered on the beach thousands of starfish that had been washed up by the tide. As he walked, he saw another man approaching him. The man was picking up one starfish at a time and throwing them back into the sea. "Friend," the first man said, "I'm interested in what you are doing."
The second man said, "I'm throwing the starfish back into the sea. They'll die if they stay here on the beach."
The first man said, "But there are thousands of starfish washed up here. You can't possibly throw them all back in. You can't make that big a difference."
The second man leaned over, picked up a starfish, and threw him into the sea. "Made a difference to that one!" he said, and walked on.
Thank you, friends of mine, who made a difference to one child. You can't adopt all of them, but you can adopt one. You can't break the cycles of all the dysfunctional families in this world, but you can break the cycles of one. You can't give hope to all the children, but you can give hope to one child. And to that one child, what you have done means more than he or she will ever know this side of heaven.
Jesus said it all in Matthew 25: "For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink . . . . I was a scared child growing up in a crime-ridden, hopeless home and you became My parents. You loved Me, provided for Me, put up with My trust issues, and gave Me a chance at life."
I believe my friends will hear those words from Jesus Himself when they stand before Him. Well done. Enjoy the newest addition to your family- looks like Jesus has just come to live with you.
My work with the Amachi program (mentoring children of incarcerated inmates) and the Inside/Out Dad program in the Fayette County Detention Center has taught me several things, and among them is that the family you grow up with can either be a conduit of blessing or a conduit of sin.
God's word states that "the sins of the father are visited upon the children," and I can attest to the validity of that statement. One of the inmates in my Inside/Out Dad class had fourteen children by eleven different women. Bad? Actually, he's the success story in the family- he was one of twenty children that his father had by nineteen different women.
That cycle of sin was all he knew. It became a death spiral that dragged him down without him even knowing it. He was simply carrying on what he had been shown by his father.
And so it goes with all of us- there are cycles of sin that all families contain, and we have the opportunity and the obligation to identify and break as many of those as we can. If divorce is a cycle of sin in your family, and you grew up in a divorced home, you can resolve to be the last one in your family to grow up in a divorced home. It stops with you. No more. You will break the cycle of divorce that was passed down to you by your parents, and probably their parents, and you will establish wholeness in your family from this point forward.
If drug addiction is a cycle of sin in your family, you have the same opportunity. You can break that cycle, that vicious death spiral, and be set free to bless your future family with wholeness in the name of God. If bitterness, or criticism, or unforgiveness, (or whatever your family's cycle of sin is) is affecting you, you can be the last one in your family to experience it. You can break that cycle by the power of the Holy Spirit and set your family, or future family, on the course to blessing by God.
Because cycles of blessing are just as much a part of families as cycles of sin are.
A faithful family- a family devoted to the Word of God- many times will continue that blessing from generation to generation. As I was celebrating Thanksgiving with my family, I reflected over the fact that nowhere in the history of my family is there one instance of divorce. My parents, my wife's parents, all our grandparents, our great-grandparents, and as far back as anyone can remember- they were all married for life. Please don't think I am bragging. I am astounded, actually. I realize how rare that is, and I don't take it for granted. The cycle of blessing- the cycle of wholeness in families, has been passed down. Someone far back in my ancestry decided to make marriage a priority and to tough it out through thick and thin, and began a cycle of blessing that continues today.
Today, I attended the celebration of an adoption. As I was talking with her adoptive parents, who were overjoyed at the fact that the sweet little girl is now theirs, I heard the story of where she came from. It was nothing but brokenness- drug addiction, siblings by multiple fathers, no stability, no trust, no safety. This sweet little girl was going to grow up in that environment and was most likely going to repeat the cycle of sin and brokenness, because that's all she would have ever known.
Adoption breaks that death spiral cycle. This sweet little girl now has a loving home- loving parents who are committed in Godly marriage, three siblings by those same married parents, no drugs, no violence, no threat of the state taking away the children. This little girl has been uprooted out of a dysfunctional story, one with a very probable terrible ending, and has been transplanted into a story where she actually has a chance at peace, wholeness, and love.
I am extremely pro-adoption. Witnessing the events of today make me even more so. Looking at the chance that this little girl has now leaves me no doubt that this is the right thing to do. The death spiral cycle of sin, abuse, neglect, and crime have been completely erased from her life, and now she has what every child wants- a loving home and two loving parents.
There is so much brokenness in this world- there are more than 7000 children in the foster care system in Kentucky alone. This family adopted one child. You may say that isn't much. 1/7000th is a pretty small number.
I'm reminded of the story of a man walking on the beach at low tide. He saw scattered on the beach thousands of starfish that had been washed up by the tide. As he walked, he saw another man approaching him. The man was picking up one starfish at a time and throwing them back into the sea. "Friend," the first man said, "I'm interested in what you are doing."
The second man said, "I'm throwing the starfish back into the sea. They'll die if they stay here on the beach."
The first man said, "But there are thousands of starfish washed up here. You can't possibly throw them all back in. You can't make that big a difference."
The second man leaned over, picked up a starfish, and threw him into the sea. "Made a difference to that one!" he said, and walked on.
Thank you, friends of mine, who made a difference to one child. You can't adopt all of them, but you can adopt one. You can't break the cycles of all the dysfunctional families in this world, but you can break the cycles of one. You can't give hope to all the children, but you can give hope to one child. And to that one child, what you have done means more than he or she will ever know this side of heaven.
Jesus said it all in Matthew 25: "For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink . . . . I was a scared child growing up in a crime-ridden, hopeless home and you became My parents. You loved Me, provided for Me, put up with My trust issues, and gave Me a chance at life."
I believe my friends will hear those words from Jesus Himself when they stand before Him. Well done. Enjoy the newest addition to your family- looks like Jesus has just come to live with you.
What a wonderful article!
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