As a boy I learned that my grandfather’s mother died when he was just a boy of only 3 years old. He had an older sister who was 5 and a younger brother who was only 1. My grandfather’s dad had lost his wife when she was only 24 and he now had three young children to raise, and one was still in diapers.

My great-grandfather gave up his children to his in-laws who raised them. He then, at some point, became a heavy drinker and had very little relationship with his children. I had always thought that he was just a selfish man that abandoned his family but that was not the whole story. How devastating would it be to lose the wife you loved when she was only 24 years old? And in those days, how hard would it be for a man to raise three little children on his own? He did however have a choice. We all do.

Deuteronomy 30:19; “ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”

I can feel sorry for what my great-grandfather and his children went through, but he made the choice to give up his children and turn to drinking. The tragedy could have been that my grandfather would use his dad as an excuse to do the same thing and my dad would follow that example and ruin his life and abandon his children. However, my grandfather did not use his dad as an excuse to ruin his life, but because my grandmother knew the Lord, he accepted Jesus in his heart and raised his children to live a blessed life. My dad then passed down that blessed life to his family.

Deuteronomy 30:20 is the rest of the story; (choose life), “that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

The God we serve is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He promised to Israel, He promises to us because we have been adopted into His family.

Family curses are repeated generation after generation until someone decides to stop blaming their past and change it by building a strong family unit with values that lead to a blessed life. I’m so thankful that my grandfather made the right choice.

These are the everyday issues we address at The Gathering Place Church every Wednesday evening at 7 and Sunday morning at 9:30 and 10:30. We have youth group and recovery classes every Sunday night at 6. Come and join in. It can change your life for good!