What do I mean by Generational Sin?

In one of my recent posts I mentioned generational sin, and a very good friend of mine brought up a great question about what I meant by that.  His concern was that I was inferring that we are essentially passed down sin from our parents (iniquity passed down generation to generation). That would be far against what I (and my friend) believe, which is that we are saved by the sacrifice that Christ gave upon the cross; He sacrificed himself to take away our sins (1 John 4:10). So, I figured I would take this post to explain exactly what I mean by generational sin.

We humans struggle with a great many things, and when we become a Christian it does not become any easier, however there is never a struggle that God has not provided us a way out of (1 Cor 10:13). Sometimes we may not see that out, or it may take us several times to recognize the out that God is providing for us. When we get stuck in a cycle of sin, sometimes we relent to it and become stuck in that cycle, there are many reasons that this can happen especially when we stray from reading the Bible, meditating on the Word, and praying. This cycle is what I meant when I referred to generational sin. Now stick with me because I am afraid this won't make a ton of sense at first but hopefully when you are finished reading this you will get where I am headed with this.

When I speak of generational sin I mean something that we as dads/parents struggle with (this could be anything) and we are unwilling to break the cycle of (or possibly it is broken well after our children are grown up) and in our unwillingness to break this cycle we unintentionally bleed our habits or struggles into our children lives. Also, in our being the stewards and leaders of our families, when we struggle with something we tend to try and keep it hidden, and instead of teaching our children what God has to say about it we do not teach them to discern right and wrong, in turn giving them a "recipe" or a generational issue/habit.

One example I can use from my own life is that I was never really taught by my parents that pornography was wrong, matter of fact I know (because I found it) that there were tapes in the home, so despite the feelings that I had deep down in my heart, I assumed that there really wasn't that much wrong with it. This is something that followed me for decades, and being that I was a teenager when the internet first became mainstream it just made it that much easier to have access to, making it seem as though it was something acceptable. Now this is just assumption, but I believe that if my dad had sat me down and had a long talk with me about the things he struggled with and warned me of the dangers of how the addiction could take over my life, while giving me a Biblical foundation on it, I would have been more apt to stay far away from it. This was something that never happened. I do not blame my parents for my actions, because they were of my own doing, however I do believe that we as parents have an obligation to teach our children God's Word, and we are to "bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord." Eph 6:4

One of the biggest mistakes that we make as parents is living a double edged life, we teach our children vocally to do one thing, but then we teach them quite the opposite through our actions. We have an obligation to be active teachers by both words and actions, do as I say and do as I do. I personally cannot count the number of times that I told my children they needed to cut the amount of time that they were spending in front of a screen, only to sit down in my chair and then waste countless amounts of time mindlessly scrolling through my phone, or binge watching a TV show, and you know what? I never thought much about that until recently, because that was something that I had seen as an example from my own father. I would tell my oldest that he needed to spend more time reading, but I wasn't setting the example to him, and instead he would follow my lead (do as I do). I can honestly go on and on about the examples that we have all had in our lives where we were told that we should do one thing and then our example was the complete opposite. The worst part is that unless we break this cycle of the habits that we have had examples of, we will pass down those bad habits to our children.

We, as parents, must teach our children. One thing that we have recently implemented in our household is nightly Bible study.  We have been using "Our 24 Family Ways" by Clay Clarkson. Are our nightly readings perfect? Of course not, we have a 9, 5, and 3 year old. Matter of fact it has been a great test of my patience (you dads/parents with younger kids know what I mean), because there is complete and utter chaos the entire time, but here's the thing - it is establishing a good habit and is getting my kids to think more about what the scripture has to say. Another thing that I have been making the conscious effort to do is to make sure that my kids see me reading the Bible and making highlights or notes, I want them to understand just how important spending time in God's Word is. My wife and I have also been making a much more concentrated effort to set our phones down and be intentional with our time with our kids, are we perfect at it? Nope, but our kids are noticing the difference and they are feeding and growing off of it. Remember you are not perfect, and if there can be chaos there will be chaos, but when you make the effort your kids will notice and they will truly appreciate it.

Hopefully this post brings some clarity to what I meant in my previous one. I also pray that it made you think a little bit about how our actions as dads/parents can have an affect on our children. We are the front line in battling for our children's hearts, and when we truly focus on raising them to be lovers of Christ, and we equip them with God's Word, we are doing what we have been called to do as stewards for our blessings.