There can be many family resemblances, whether it's hair, height, face, or even health problems. There are some family resemblances that are less obvious and much more damaging.
They damage our marriage, kids, close relationships, future, and our self-worth. We pick up from our parents ways of talking and acting that we didn't like in them. Suddenly we hear ourselves sounding like mom or dad and treating others as our parents did. We react, communicate, and live as they did in ways we never meant to repeat. Of course, our children will have to go through the same pain unless something changes.
If we could change some of these things, we would have by now. It's almost as if there's this man or woman we would like to be, that we need to be, and then there's this person we really are. There's a huge gap in between.
There is some good news from our Heavenly Father in His Word. 2 Peter 1:18 says, "Christ has redeemed us from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers with the precious blood of Christ."
You don't have to be what your parents and maybe all the generations before that were. These family germs can stop in your generation, but not with your power. There is a Savior who bridges that gap between the person you want to be and the person you are. He's a rescuer from this spiritual cancer called sin. It's much deeper than breaking some religious rules.
It's the issue of who's really God in your life and if you're living life your way. That can make us slaves to our dark side.
There's a Savior and our redemption depended on the shedding of His innocent blood on that cross. 1 Peter 2:24 explains it by saying, "He bore our sins in his own body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness." He took the penalty and the pain of every sin on Himself.
You can be forgiven, where every sin of yours is erased from God's book. It is the beginning of your liberation. You can be changed. As the Bible says, "you can be a new creation in Christ" ( 2 Corinthians 5:17).
What you could never change, Jesus is able to miraculously transform. If you were to give yourself to Jesus today, you could finally get rid of your sin baggage. You would have the power of the only Man who ever conquered death, changing you from the inside out.
Where we really need hope is to change the person we are on the inside, and there's a powerful Savior for that. You can stop those ugly family sins, and no one in your family will ever have to look like that again.