I woke up this morning realizing that I have many habits and characteristics that my parents have given or instilled in me. For many of them, I am extremely thankful. Others, maybe not so much. Some of these are very noticeable. In fact, yesterday as I sat in my office in a meeting with a parent of a student in my school, the conversation went to a very strange place. The mother of this student ended our meeting with a question. She said her husband was dying to know what I did to get my head to look so smooth.
This would have to be one of the strangest things I have ever had a person ask. I thought it was kind of obvious how this happened. You see my dad is bald. Growing up there was never a time that I can remember my dad having much more hair on his head then he does now at the age of seventy-nine. Even as a young boy in elementary school, I was teased and prepared for my life without hair. Honestly, I don't have any resentment for not having a full head of hair. It makes things much easier to manage.
This is just one of the characteristics that has been passed down. There is though a habit that is in our family that I hate. It was just in the last couple of years that my wife and I realized were it came from. This is one of those habits that you wished you could forever remove from your being, but it seems to be pressed heavily into every fiber of my family's existence.
What is even more terrifying to me, is to see this trait so widely spread to my children. My daughter, Rebekah started showing signs of this at a very early age. I wondered if there was something a doctor could do for her, but sadly it just kept getting more and more prominent. So far my sons have only shown mild cases of it, but my poor daughter has it in a full blown manner.
I am not really sure as to how it passed on to her and not so much to her brothers, but she has inherited the dreaded habit of spilling her food down the front of her shirt when she eats. Now I know some of you reading this are saying to yourself right now that everyone from time to time drops something on their shirt. Just so you know, I am not talking about an occasional slip, but almost a regular event at every meal.
It never really dawned on me where this habit came from until my dad move in with us a couple of years ago. As I reflected over childhood memories, I recalled the fact that anytime my dad wore a tie while eating you could almost always expect something on it. White dress shirts were another spill magnet. I had never connected the fact that my father had passed this on to my daughter. We never even connected the two in their issue.
Almost two months ago I celebrated my nineteenth wedding anniversary with my wife by taking her out to her favorite restaurant. We enjoyed a terrific dinner until I looked down to see a glaring spot on my white shirt. No matter how much my wife reassured me that it wasn't noticeable, I couldn't get past it. I felt like there was a neon sign pointing at the very spot on the front of my shirt.
Though I tried not to say much about the spot, it really drove me crazy. Not wanting to ruin a great evening with my wife, I consented to going to the local mall after dinner to walk around. As we walked through the stores, I felt the presence of every eye on me and my stained shirt. There was nothing I could do. The family curse had gotten the best of me that night. Though it didn't ruin my night completely, it did send me into a poor mindset--I was less than happy.
I guess this is sort of what Psalm 119:1 is saying when God said, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way." I would have been much happier that night walking around if I had not had that spot on my shirt. God knows that we all would be much better off (blessed or happy) if we would live our lives in an unspotted, undefiled way.
So how do we reverse the family curse that Adam and Eve passed down to us? The Psalmist gives us the answer in verse nine of Psalm 119. "By taking heed according to Your (God's) Word." When I pay careful attention to how I eat, I am much less prone to get food on my shirt. When I pay careful attention instilling God's Word in my everyday life, I am much less prone to get spotted by the stains of sin. It is when I am gorging myself on the sloppy servings of the world that I tend to get spotted. A bad "hair" day is the pattern that ensues, and I am definitely not happy or blessed.
Lets work at getting God's Word in our hearts and lives more, so that we don't have to walk around upset and angry over the ugly spots on our lives. Reverse the family curse!
This would have to be one of the strangest things I have ever had a person ask. I thought it was kind of obvious how this happened. You see my dad is bald. Growing up there was never a time that I can remember my dad having much more hair on his head then he does now at the age of seventy-nine. Even as a young boy in elementary school, I was teased and prepared for my life without hair. Honestly, I don't have any resentment for not having a full head of hair. It makes things much easier to manage.
This is just one of the characteristics that has been passed down. There is though a habit that is in our family that I hate. It was just in the last couple of years that my wife and I realized were it came from. This is one of those habits that you wished you could forever remove from your being, but it seems to be pressed heavily into every fiber of my family's existence.
What is even more terrifying to me, is to see this trait so widely spread to my children. My daughter, Rebekah started showing signs of this at a very early age. I wondered if there was something a doctor could do for her, but sadly it just kept getting more and more prominent. So far my sons have only shown mild cases of it, but my poor daughter has it in a full blown manner.
I am not really sure as to how it passed on to her and not so much to her brothers, but she has inherited the dreaded habit of spilling her food down the front of her shirt when she eats. Now I know some of you reading this are saying to yourself right now that everyone from time to time drops something on their shirt. Just so you know, I am not talking about an occasional slip, but almost a regular event at every meal.
It never really dawned on me where this habit came from until my dad move in with us a couple of years ago. As I reflected over childhood memories, I recalled the fact that anytime my dad wore a tie while eating you could almost always expect something on it. White dress shirts were another spill magnet. I had never connected the fact that my father had passed this on to my daughter. We never even connected the two in their issue.
Almost two months ago I celebrated my nineteenth wedding anniversary with my wife by taking her out to her favorite restaurant. We enjoyed a terrific dinner until I looked down to see a glaring spot on my white shirt. No matter how much my wife reassured me that it wasn't noticeable, I couldn't get past it. I felt like there was a neon sign pointing at the very spot on the front of my shirt.
Though I tried not to say much about the spot, it really drove me crazy. Not wanting to ruin a great evening with my wife, I consented to going to the local mall after dinner to walk around. As we walked through the stores, I felt the presence of every eye on me and my stained shirt. There was nothing I could do. The family curse had gotten the best of me that night. Though it didn't ruin my night completely, it did send me into a poor mindset--I was less than happy.
I guess this is sort of what Psalm 119:1 is saying when God said, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way." I would have been much happier that night walking around if I had not had that spot on my shirt. God knows that we all would be much better off (blessed or happy) if we would live our lives in an unspotted, undefiled way.
So how do we reverse the family curse that Adam and Eve passed down to us? The Psalmist gives us the answer in verse nine of Psalm 119. "By taking heed according to Your (God's) Word." When I pay careful attention to how I eat, I am much less prone to get food on my shirt. When I pay careful attention instilling God's Word in my everyday life, I am much less prone to get spotted by the stains of sin. It is when I am gorging myself on the sloppy servings of the world that I tend to get spotted. A bad "hair" day is the pattern that ensues, and I am definitely not happy or blessed.
Lets work at getting God's Word in our hearts and lives more, so that we don't have to walk around upset and angry over the ugly spots on our lives. Reverse the family curse!
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