Ensure next generation does not repeat past mistakes

FRIDAY, JUNE 1: Every generation must be challenged to make new decisions. That is, the choices and decisions made by the youth or young adults must be made for the betterment of their own future.

Many times children repeat their parents’ errors; it becomes a generational thing or a family trait.

Often you will hear a phrase spoken that explains that the younger generation does it that way because that’s how it has always been done.

However, that is akin to insanity or retardation.

To continuously do wrong because that is just the way your family does it, is to refuse to bless your next generation with better examples.

You must make a new decision and determine that the next generation will not be trained to make wrong mistakes.

In the Bible, Hezekiah could have easily succumbed to that same mindset when he became king at the age of 25.

Hezekiah could have looked back at his own father and followed in his footsteps. After all, his father was a king.

Well, the truth is that even leaders can go wrong, and it becomes the intimate and individual choice of the new leader to decide whether he or she will follow down the same path of destruction as his or her parent, or forge a new path of prosperity for the people.

In the scriptures of the Old Covenant, or the Old Testament, it was very common to focus on males.

Hence, the strength of the family system was based upon the strength of the father in that family.

So, if you look at Hezekiah’s father, you will see that Hezekiah would be in trouble if he followed in the footsteps of his father.

Not only that, but since Hezekiah was King Hezekiah, then “as he went, so would the nation of Israel go”.

What is beautiful in the scriptures is that God always had a remedy for the ills and the woes of any people. And that is what we are presented with in the very first verse of 2 Chronicles 29.

2 Chronicles 29:1 Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

What are the basic stats of that verse? They are:

• New king: Hezekiah.
• Young king: inexperienced.
• Old history: foolish father.
• Huge responsibility: the nation of Israel.

With those stats, it might even seem that a young and inexperienced Hezekiah was set up for failure. Yet, the scripture verse is not finished.

There are more details than what I have just shared with you. They are:

• A mother named Abijah.
• A maternal grand-father named Zechariah.

God will never leave you without a choice to go another way. That is what Hezekiah was faced with.

Yes, he had an evil and wicked father, Ahaz. Yet, if Hezekiah looked at the big picture he would understand that he had more going for him than he thought.

Hezekiah’s mother’s name was Abijah. Her name means ‘Jehovah is my Father or God is my Daddy’.

Oh, the power of a focused mother. This mother got it; her strength did not end with who had fathered her child.

No, she was more than a woman and part of the baby-mama drama. She was more than what you thought.

She had strength of character to move beyond her past and live to groom her son for a fabulous future.

Not only that, but King Hezekiah could also look at his mother’s father and gain strength from his character.

His maternal grand-father was Zechariah, which means, ‘God remembers’.

Not forgotten

God does not forget what situation or what family you are born into. No, it is often you who forgets God. God remembers. God stands waiting to pull the puzzle pieces of your life back together to fit in their rightful places.

If only mothers today would stop fussing about who the father of the child is and begin to focus on the future of the child, then Bermuda would be in a better place socially.

If mothers today would focus on their relationship with God, they would be in a better place to raise a successful son or daughter.

Hezekiah’s father may have done wrong, but his mother surely did right.

Let’s give our children an opportunity to have a successful life. It is not the end of the world if the father is not focused; our Heavenly Father knows how to raise a successful son and daughter.

It is up to the individual parent to actually decide to parent the child.

When God, who gave life to you in the womb, is left out of the picture, the picture will not end well.

Yield to the strength of God, the care of God, and the ability of God to bring success and joy out of negative situations. Hezekiah was a success and your children can have the very same testimony.