Personal Mission Statement- A Line in the Sand
This week’s post continues with the theme of “What is Your Personal Mission Statement?”
“‘The LORD is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’”
All of us have come from different types of backgrounds, we have all had setbacks that have affected us, and we have all been born into different situations. One great thing about being a follower of Christ is that your history- your past- does not define your destiny. That’s if you will choose to not allow various setbacks or family situations you were born into to not define your future. There comes a time in life where we have to draw a line in the sand between what has burdened us or once defined us in the past, from, where we’re trying to get to. We can’t move forward if we’re still trying to hold onto the past.
““and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.””
By drawing a line in the sand, it means you know who you are. It means you understand the benefits of boundaries to stand up and say “just because my family had XYZ issues for the past XYZ generations doesn’t mean these issues will come into my house, so I’m choosing to stop them here with me.” It means that you recognize your worth and you say “no” when it needs to be said. It means that your personal mission statement represents you moving forward to be who God has called you to be. But it’s us that has to choose to draw a line in the sand.
Christine Caine gave a sermon on this topic of “a line in the sand.” Her husband Nick is English and once when she was in Stratford, England she went to the archives office to research her husband’s ancestry. She just “jokingly” knew her husband came from a long line of British aristocracy. When she received the facts of his lineage, aristocracy was the last thing on the list. Instead, he came from a line of pirates, robbers and drunkards. Christine herself had been sexually abused as a child, she had been taunted in school for being Greek, she had alcoholism on her side of the family, and she found out in her 30s that her parents who she thought were her biological parents had adopted her. In addition to that she also discovered that her birth mother left her in the hospital she was born in, unnamed and unwanted. So with her husband’s felon family line and her abused, unwanted, and taunted past she quickly saw what her daughters could inherit- the same negative background that comes with negative situations. But, Christine drew a line in the sand and said “the negativity stops here!” Christine decided that her and her family’s personal mission statement would be one of reformation, redemption, life, being the head and not the tail, and being the lender and not the borrower. And because of her bold move to draw a line in the sand, along with her faith in God, He is moving the Caine family upward and onward.
Whatever family shame or negativity you were born into, whatever you have done in your past or pain that you have caused, or whatever unfortunate things that have been done to you, with the power of Christ, you have the strength to draw a line in the sand and renew your mind. You can start looking at yourself the way God does so that you and your progeny going forward do not have to suffer under the sins of past generations. If you choose you can live a blessed enriching life.
Happy Friday!