Change Your Family Tree

"Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.  Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height."  Judges 6:25-26

You can affect future generations by the decisions you make today, says the author of today's devotion.  That's enough to keep me, the recovering perfectionist, paralyzed for fear of doing something wrong.  I've seen it happen with with other members of my family.  Every decision has to be carefully researched, every option considered and sometimes to the point that no decision is ever made or it takes forever to make what seems like a relatively easy decision.  That's a hard anxiety to fight against.  However, I think the author isn't trying to scare me but to encourage me to take a risk to positively affect the generations to come.

I often wonder what role model I am for my girls.  I'm not the same career-oriented person I was in my twenties but I still think of my life to date as pretty successful.  I wonder, though, if they do.  Do they really get that I've continued to work in many different capacities all under the guise of being a "stay at home" mom?  That somehow I have managed to juggle it all - at least most of the time?  I've seen women interviewed who say that the reason they are doing what they do is so that their children have the role model of a strong woman pursuing her dreams. Does that mean that putting some dreams on hold was a bad thing?  When asked, my girls still want me to be involved as a volunteer and don't care for the idea of going to before or after care in addition to their day at school, so maybe they do "get" why I did it.

What I do know, though, is that whatever dream or goal I pursue next will definitely affect not just me but my family too.  I want it to be a positive effect.  We all deserve it.

Have a forward thinking Best Life day!