We Can Break the Chains (2 Chronicles 22)

2 Chronicles 22:3 He, too, walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, because his mother was his counselor in doing evil.

Once Jehoshaphat decided to make alliances with Ahab, it seemed to bring doom to his family and several generations after him. His son Jehoram and grandson, Ahaziah, did not reign for very long because they followed the ways of Ahab instead of ways of the Lord. Ahaziah’s mother, Attaliah, was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Jezebel is the one who brought Ahab to tolerate evil ways and the worship of Baal. On both sides, we can see how false profits and evil seemed to follow one generation after another. 

Generational trauma can be seen throughout history and still to this day, in which people use what happened to their ancestors to relinquish blame on their own actions. One way to look at it is for people who lived through WWI and the Great Depression. People who were in the war may have seen violence, abuse, struggled with chemical dependency, PTSD, and poverty. Their children growing up in this May have also struggled with alcoholism, codependency, anger, emotional abuse, and untreated mental illness. Then their own children may have developed depression, alcoholism, eating disorders because of approval seeking and identity confusion. Trauma can be passed through family lines, and unless it is noticed and attended to, will continue. That’s all the children know and it is how they will continue to live and treat their own children. Unless someone breaks the chains. 

This is the same with religious and political upbringings. Sin will be passed down from one generation to the next as well.  Children will follow their parents beliefs and traditions unless they choose to stand for a change (which is not always in a good way, as we see in our culture today). God has given us the goods to pass on to our children so that they may be brought up with his word. We have the Bible, the written word of God, that we need to be passing down to our children, so it continues down the generations. We need to spend time with the Lord to see if there is any patterns from our own childhood that needs to stop before we imprint them on our children. I’m working hard each day to not continue certain behaviors that were taught, because I want to do better. 

There are people out there who don’t know God because their parents and grandparents didn’t, whether because of ignorance or choice. We should pray for those children being brought up today in this world where people are choosing to go against God’s word, in hopes that they don’t start a whole new generational trauma.