[195 words]
I have often used the expression, “it is hard to rise above your raising.” Those who are raised in an abusive home often abuse others. Many who abuse drugs learned that way of living at home.
Unfaithful parents raise unfaithful children. Such children grow up believing that immorality, hatefulness, and abuse is normal.
But once the mold is set it is hard to break. But hard doesn’t mean impossible. Countless numbers of people have found hope and change in the Gospel of Christ. I can cite example after example of those as children who suffered horrible things, but as adults allowed the Gospel of Christ to change their lives into something worth living.
I can recall a family where the father was an alcoholic. Two children were raised in that home. One followed the mold that his father had set; the other with the Gospel went in the other direction to a good life and one with meaning. How often do we hear the excuse, “I just cannot help myself, that is just the way I was raised.” We can become what God wants us to be, but not by hanging on to the past.
Floyd C. Johnson
Huntington Park church of Christ
Shreveport, LA