Sunday's Devo - The Sins of the Fathers

I am back from Louisiana and my mom's surgery went really well. We were at the hospitol for 11 hours and once home she was feeling well only a little weak. By the next day she was up doing everything she normally did. Thank you for your prayers. At the hospitol I got to sit for 2 and a half hours with my older brother. He was the rebellious/70's hippie/ prodigal son that never came home. I listened as he unloaded all his life's woes on me. He is bitter and put all the blame for his life on my parents. It was like we were raised in completely different homes by different parents. He was very convincing and I found myself rethinking some of my conclusions after he had gone. I realized that when you are affended and you don't allow God to heal you and set you free of it, you become blinded to the truth. He never once took responsibility for any of his actions. He has never remarried and has no children so he has no idea the suffering and pain he put my parents through. I was there and I did. My parents made some mistakes but they were navigating through uncharted paths. They grew up in a generation where the parents ruled and the children obeyed or got punished for it. The depression made everyone sober and responsible for their own livelihood. There was little "extra" and little time for doing your own thing. The 70's were marked by fathers who were trying to make a living for their families so they would never have to go through that again. The problem was that these fathers left there families for work and spent little time being fathers. They tried to buy their children's hearts with money and material things. The sons and daughters became rebellious kids who just wanted the attention of a father. They turned to drugs, rock music and doing their own thing. These very children who just wanted a father grew up to be the yuppies of today. They continue the cycle of working and providing for their families only it became a contest to have the most, the biggest, and the best. To do this the mothers go to work too. Now the children have lost the family structure all together. They get the left-overs from their parent's energy and time. The tendency of parents today is to worship the image of children: what can their children achieve that will make them proud.
On the other hand I see parents who love God and are trying to raise their children in a godly atmosphere in a world gone wrong. They love their children for the right reasons. They realize they are God's children who have been sent to earth for a purpose and an assignment. And these children will rock the world for Jesus. Thank God for these parents and these children. May there testimony ring loud in this generation!
I pray that my brother and others like him will become humble and forgiving and will open their heart to the love of a loving father. I pray that You would pour your love out on the fathers of this generation and cause them to arise and take their righteous places in the family.