The Road to Where We Are Now...

She comes from a long line of sinners and saints, that daughter of ours, the one with dimples like her father.

Comes from a long line of teachers, preachers, farmers, soldiers. With roots from all over the globe--Germany, Philippines, England, and more.

Men and women of great character and honor, and some less honorable.

She carries in her veins the bloodline of thinkers, revolutionaries, and pioneers and of those who struggled, labored, and lost.

Her great grandfathers many times over, fought for revolution, for country's independence and for equality for all men.

Her grandmothers of the past labored faithfully alongside their husbands, shoulder to the plough and hands tender towards their children.

Her parent's parents telling others of God's goodness and love.

Her own father bringing healing to the sick and life to the dying.

She comes from good stock...and from bad.

From liars, from the faithless, from cheats and the addicted. From men and women who harbored hate, lust, and selfishness toward their fellow man.

From those who would put self before others and anger before love. From those who would turn on their sons and daughters and walk a selfish road.

And I see her childlike innocence, and I pray--how I pray!--that she will not follow in the tragedies of her ancestors, but will follow in the path of the faithful.

Though I would rather hide the mistakes of the past and bury them under the success of the good--I will tell her the stories of her forefathers and I will pass down the truth of the generations. I will tell her the stories of triumph and of failures.

 I will be honest and she will know where she comes from and who she comes from. And she will see that the past--both good and bad--brings us to where we are now.

And I pray that one day, she will pass down to my grandchildren the regrets and the joys of my life that they might learn from it and see His grace in it all. Then they might know that they can trust what they know of God because they will have seen His goodness to one as frail as I.

 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught.

You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you.

You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:14-15

 

She comes from a long line of sinners and saints--as we all do.

 

And she will know the stories of her people so that she will remember the faithfulness of her Father.