The gray in my hair is obvious. It is there, I cannot deny it. I now have the privilege of looking at life from two directions. The view is amazing! Now I don’t want to be anywhere else. Yet it is easy to get caught in different ponds; yesterday wrapped in nostalgia, the joy of understanding how much I enjoy being around and with my parents, and the excitement of seeing a new generation take their place.
The link across generations is wonderful, assuring, and frightening all at once. I am discovering traits in Carli and Whitney I haven’t seen except in my father. I find myself reacting in the same way to two very different generations! Nothing is as simple as I might think it is. As I look in the mirror, wondering when and how these must have passed through me, I discover more about myself that I previously only saw or assumed existed in my father and mother. Perhaps I was far more of a cookie than I ever realized or was willing to consider.
I may sound like I am being negative, I’m not really. It is more that I am surprised how much of what shaped and formed my life has been passed on. Given what is observable is the rest like an iceberg, two thirds submerged? Did the girls also inherit my fears, weaknesses, and tendencies to repeatedly fail?
Jesus warned those of his day. “You're from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn't stand the truth because there wasn't a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies.” (John 8.44)
The challenge for us today is to break the cycle. We can ask God for a new heart. We can provide a window for those before and after us to see God in action. Everything is possible, especially for the second and third generations.
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