Recently, we talked about Kingdom thinking and how it can affect generations to come. As I continued to ponder on that truth, I read some passages in the Bible that teaches us other things we pass down to our children – negative things.
In Genesis 12:10-13, we find an interesting story:
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore, it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.”
You may be familiar with this story. Abraham lied about his wife because he was afraid he would be killed. While I have always thought this was odd, this is not the only time he lied about Sarah. We find he did the same thing again in the 20thchapter of Genesis. He didn’t learn his lesson the first time, he repeated his life a few chapters later.
Now, lets look at Genesis 26:7-9:
And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.” Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”
We find Isaac doing the same exact thing his father, Abraham did. Lying because he was afraid he would be killed because his wife was beautiful.
As I read these chapters today, I realized something. We often pass down fears to our children without even realizing it. It makes me think about Breanne and my grandkids. Breanne doesn’t like heights. Bryson and Brailee claim they are afraid of heights too, not because anything has ever happened to them while they were on heights, but because their mom doesn’t like heights.
I see the same thing in my own life. Things I have learned from my mom to be cautious of. Like storms. When we were little, Mama would wake us up and put us in bed with her when there was a bad storm. For this reason, my sister hates storms. She learned this fear from my mom.
What are we teaching our children? Are we passing on our deep-rooted fears to them, unknowingly? Let’s be careful not to do that. First, if like Abraham and Isaac we have learned fears, lets get rid of them and place them under the blood of Jesus, once and for all. So that our children never have to deal with them.
While the bad news is that we truly can pass down fear to our children, there is good news! We can also pass down confidence, trust, a strong spiritual heritage and lack of fear. It goes both ways. Let’s make a decision that we won’t pass down our negative traits but that we will impart to our children, and grandchildren all that is good – all that is God – in doing so, we set them up for success in life. That sounds like a good plan to me.
A American President once said . ” The only thing to fear is fear itself”.