Laws of Generations

When I first heard about the "Laws of Generations" the notion that blessings and curses are carried forward to future generations, I rejected the concept out of hand. "it just isn't fair," I said, but before long I read the scripture and my ideas about fairness came up against the hard. cold fact of life and God's word. Now I teach people around the globe about ways to break free from the past both generationally and personally.

Scripture is pretty clear about the subject. Right in the Ten Commandments God told His people to "Honor your mother and father so your days will be long." They also that those who worship other gods will be cursed for three to four generations but those who love God will be blessed for thousands of generations.

2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3 "You shall have no other gods before me.

4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

13 "You shall not murder.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

I like to help people discover the blessings and curses of past generations so they can prayerfully cut free from the bad stuff and welcome all the good heritage. We do this by developing genograms, a map that shows all the geneological as well as the spiritual, emotional and physical dimensions of one's family.

We start with the Family of Origin. This includes Dad, Mom and siblings and how we all related. next I ask the people to find as much as possible out about their historic family that includes grand parents and their siblings. It takes at least three to four generations before we are able to see generational patterns. After a little discussion we begin to see patterns that had escaped us in prior years.

For example, I was reared in a very anxious family system. We lived next door to my maternal grand parents and my grand dad was digging himself deeper and deeper into depression. When he went to bed and stopped living in the fall of 1945 I began to stay with him and care for him on a daily basis. My mother had cared for him until my little brother was born in 1945.

This earned me great accolades and praise for being a "Good Christian boy". No wonder I became a super care giver pastor and counselor in my adult Christian life. The apple does not fall far from the tree and I carried on mother's tradition.

Grand dad Taylor took to his sick bed one day after my brother Tommy Taylor was born and it became his death bed. Decisions DO have consequences for generations.