I woke up earlier than usual this morning, my brain going 100 miles an hour with ideas and verses to ponder. I’ve been teaching childbirth classes the past few weeks to a Torah couple expecting twins, and the mom is doing an *amazing* job of getting all the nutrition she needs each day, doing exercises to tone her body and encourage the babies into a good position for birth, and juggling cooking, doctor and chiropractor appointments, etc. Meanwhile, she’s been keeping up with homeschooling her older son and improving her marriage. I was over at their house Monday evening and marveled at the love she and her husband showed to each other, and the hospitality they showed to Kraig, me, and one of our daughters while we were there.
I have known her for a few years, and she hasn’t always been Torah-observant OR blessed in all her ways. She started by changing the way she thought, by meditating on the Word, and even with massive hurdles and plenty of setbacks— arguments, frustrations, and overwhelming days of trying to get rid of old habits and walk an entirely new way— I just can’t believe the difference almost 3 years later.
So I woke up this morning pondering change, and how we change.
Are all problems genetic? To a point. Her husband asked us about generational curses, and we see them as genetics. You learn bad behavior from your parents and relatives, who learned bad behavior from their family, who learned it from their family.
Repentance is the hard work of not only recognizing sin in your heart, identifying it in your family line, confessing it, and applying truth from Torah to it. If that were all, then Bible lessons, Scripture memory, and copywork would fix all our problems. The REAL work of repentance is overcoming the momentum of moving in one direction toward calamity, screeching to a halt, then starting to move in the other direction. Like an extremely heavy train that has to get moving again after a full stop, this takes enormous work, even calories, good sleep, and lots of cheerleading from godly friends.
Change is not easy. I’ll leave you with some verses that clue us in on how to make it happen:
“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which YHVH your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear YHVH your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as YHVH God of your fathers has promised you—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ Hear, O Israel: YHVH our God, YHVH is one! You shall love YHVH your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:1-9).
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture in this blog post taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Jill says
Thank you Anne, I needed this.
Tina Smith says
Anne,
Thank you so much for your words of wisdom and sharing them with us.
Shalom,
Mrs. Smith
Anne says
You are so welcome!