Bloodline Traits
While still tall, my oldest son happens to be the shortest of my three boys. He claims it’s all my fault, and at a wishful five foot three inches to my husband’s six foot-three stature, all I can say is— yep. I’m definitely the one to blame.
A trait I can’t take responsibility for is my boys’ sense of humor. All of them think the same movies, shows, and comedy acts are hilarious that my husband does. Their slap-stick humor goes right over my head. I want to laugh and will sometimes take cues from them and chuckle along, but I’m not gut-busting guffawing at their jokes. For example, there used to be a segment on Saturday Night Live, Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey. One that made my husband and kids laugh so hard that they cried was, “Nothing tears a family apart like a pack of wild wolves.” My expression after hearing Mr. Handey’s thought was one of confused horror. All I could picture was a bloodied family being devoured by wolves.
While we might be proud to pass down our physical and character traits, we must be careful not to pass along family curses. The devil has been around for a long time. He’s had a chance to sniff out generational weaknesses or areas in our bloodlines where we’ve tended to fall into sin in the past. Those areas make us and our children easy prey.
Here’s a Biblical example. Isaac lied to Abimelech, King of the Philistines, claiming Rebekah was his sister and not his wife out of fear that the king would kill him and take the beautiful Rebekah for himself (Genesis 26:7). Isaac’s son Jacob lied, pretending to be his elder brother Esau so that his father would bless him instead (Genesis 27). Jacob’s sons lied to him, dipping their younger brother’s coat in goat’s blood and saying that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal when they’d actually sold their brother into slavery (Genesis 37). Isaac’s lie started small out of fear, but it festered into a generational sin because the devil saw a weakness he could exploit.
When my boys chase each other, one will run to a room and try to close the door. If the one chasing lowers his shoulder against the door to bust inside, there’s a 50/50 chance he’ll get in, but if he wedges his foot against the door, that door’s not closing. His odds of getting in improve significantly. This is why Paul warns in Ephesians 4:27, “Do not give the devil a foothold.” Sin invites the devil in and he'll stay for multiple generations.
Does this mean we’re not only doomed but have doomed our children as well? Jesus’s blood has covered our sins, and by His strength, we can change our cursing into blessings. My family line on my father’s side was in the tobacco industry. Both my grandmother and grandfather smoked like chimneys. However, my dad ended that generational curse. He never smoked a cigarette in his life, and my brother and I followed his example, changing the trajectory of our family.
It’s good to be aware of our past generational weaknesses so that we can establish fortified boundaries and take extra precautions to not fall into the same sins of our parents. God can change our cursing into blessing, but we must choose His blessing (Deut. 11:26-28).
“For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
they and their descendants with them.”