Generational Patterns

Day 4, Generational Poverty

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Psalm 27:10 (NIV)

              Tanya waited in front of her house every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. The church van came by and she hopped on board. She loved her classes and all the friends she made at church. She especially loved it when she got invited to eat with families after church. They sat down at the table together, prayed over their meal, and ate. Laughter and conversation happened and Tanya loved it.

              At Tanya’s house, they were each responsible for their own meal. Tanya was nine, but she cooked for her little sister and brother every night. Most of the time there wasn’t much in the cabinet, so they shared a package of Ramen noodles. When her mom was home, which wasn’t often, they had to toe the line or they’d get whipped or locked in their rooms. Her mom’s boyfriend had a fancy car and the best clothes, but half the time they had no food in the house, were behind on the rent, or in fear of the power being turned off.

              Everyone in the neighborhood lived that way. Tanya also knew which house not to visit because the men would touch her or the women would scream at them. When Tanya got to visit the homes of her church friends, she got to see that her life wasn’t the only way to live. It gave her hope that one day she could break out of her life and live better.

              Tanya experienced generational patterns that had never been broken. Her impoverished neighborhood knew no other way to exist. There wasn’t a person on her block who didn’t live like her family did. The only respite she had was with her church.

              What if the couple who drove the van had not volunteered? What if the church did not see the importance of having a van ministry? What if the ministry fund had not been set aside for intentional giving to the van fund? What if Tanya had never been exposed to a different kind of life?

              We have Tanya’s all over our communities. Kids who are raised in homes that aren’t fit for animals, much less people. Kids who have been parentized from a young age or have had unjust expectations placed on them. Kids who have learned to respect people out of fear not because they are truly kindhearted and worthy of respect. They will never know there is another way to live if we don’t show them.

Do the Heart Work

1.      How can you get involved with your school and church and offer the Tanya’s another option for existence?

2.      What other generational patterns might your students be facing?

3.      What generational patterns are you in need of addressing and breaking?

Digging Deeper

Read Deuteronomy 4:25-31 (NIV)

These were instructions given by Moses to the Israelites who are getting ready to move into the Promised Land.

After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

Moses is giving them a warning. He tells them if they do this, then this will happen. What warnings has God given America over the years that we haven’t heeded. What have the consequences been?

If You Get Spare Time

              What are some attitudes, behaviors, and expectations that have been passed down your family line? Which ones have you tried really hard to break? What good things have you added instead? How can your life influence the life of someone who is in a much harder situation than you are in? Are you doing everything you can to show them the love of Jesus?