There is always joy when there is a new birth. “Oh, she looks at those eyes, they look like her parents! Oh, how beautiful she is, she looks like her mother.” It reminds me of a fun time my wife and I had with our daughter who had just turned three. We were in awe of her and began to discuss her eyes. I said that she has my eyes while my wife said that she has her eyes. We continued for a while until our daughter looked at us sheepishly and said, “It’s my eyes!” At that we laughed and we didn’t argue anymore. As a child, everything about you has a reference to an adult whom you resemble in appearance and character. It gets worse for the middle or last child as they have another child for reference in terms of material. You’ll always get second-hand clothes and toys and long to have a few that you can say, “They’re mine!” Unfortunately, as a kid, when you order a new pair of jeans, there will always be a mother saying that your brother’s jeans are still okay, and you end up with secondhand jeans.

Sometimes the child may welcome jeans, and at other times the child feels overwhelmed. Just like passing on genes can be a burden or a blessing. When the child grows up, there is always the reference that he is going to be a nurse like his mother and his grandmother or he is going to be a doctor like his father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather. It’s the same when one turns out to be a thief, “What did you expect, his father was a thief, his father’s father was a thief, it’s true such a father such a son!” So much for passing on the genes.

Now, do you like to pass the genes to me? So your life seems already written for you because of the sins of your ancestors. You are afraid of getting married because your father abused your mother, always abandoning the family. You are not free to socialize with others because they will label you as a loose woman like your mother and her mother was. These not-so-good genes have been in their family for generations and they say it’s in their blood and can’t be changed. It has been passed down to you like those jeans inherited from your brother or sister. Eyes like your father’s to see disgust in women and abuse them, beauty like your mother’s to sell your body for a living. Are you ready to stream them?

The good news is that this cycle can be stopped and ends with your parents because you can shout “I am not my father!”, “I am not my mother!”, “My life is not like my father’s or my THIS LIFE IS MINE!” There is Jesus who died for our sins, by his blood we are cleansed from the sins of our ancestors and the life they led is not the one we will lead. You have the ability to change and you have reasons to change it. The greatest source of change is the Word of God, the Word changes the world, but no matter how hard we try, the world will never change the Word. Use the word to change your life for the better. God loves you.