There is a popular saying that I am sure most of us are familiar with “hurt people, hurt people.” Meaning that people who have been hurt often go on to hurt others. We are all a bit messed up, I think each of us have things that we inherit from our families that have a negative impact on our growth in discipleship and our learning to love well.
The story of Joseph in Genesis 37 to 50 is a great guide on how we can do the work of journeying through the things that negatively impact our discipleship and learning to love well, that we inherited from our families. Joseph’s main family trait is one of deception. Joseph journeyed through this in the following ways (these steps come from the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality book):
- Joseph got a sense of the bigness of God
- Joseph admitted honestly the sadness and losses of his family
- Joseph rewrote his life according to scripture
- Joseph partnered with God to be a blessing
Becoming a Christian means that we get to be a part of a second family, Christ’s family. The wonderful thing is that we are all on this journey together and we get to encourage one another and share the burden hurt and pain and help one another bring about healing to love well.
This week, reflect on one trait that you inherited from your family that is having a negative impact on your ability to reach God’s full potential. It may be helpful to use a genogram to assist you in identifying this. Click here to access at tip sheet to create your genogram.
By Drew Williams