As a Relationship Strategist who specializes in personal, family, and team development, I have the privilege of meeting with various individuals as they process the person they have become in light of the family dynamics they were birthed through and raised in. It has become more and more apparent that many people do not give themselves permission to spiritually process the methods in which they were raised and how that season of their lives has affected them positively as well as negatively. Then I have discovered that many who are courageous enough to begin to spiritually process their childhood seasons are not willing to give themselves the freedom to be honest about their imperfect parents or whoever was their parental figure at that time. In some way, they feel they are disrespecting their parents by being honest about the adverse affects of their parents’ unwise choices, as if they are defaming their character in some way. This hindering paradigm restricts an individual from spiritually processing the effects of their childhood season, making them wholistically unprepared for the next. Stay with me, I’ll explain.
With the revelation I have now and from a Kingdom Philosophy (King-Father God’s Principles of Conduct), the parents’ ceiling should be their children’s floor. Meaning, where the parents stop, their children should begin. Unfortunately, if a child (who becomes a parent) hasn’t taken the time to spiritually process their childhood season, they will be ill-equipped to advance beyond the limitations of their parents’ instructional life-style – who were also once children. To prevent the repetitive cycle of generational recidivism, a generation must rise to the challenge and accept the call to be the transitional generation.
According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, transition is defined as “passing from one condition to another”. When I read that definition the word passing jumped out at me; so I decided to look up that definition as well. The one definition for passing that resonated in my spirit was “satisfying given requirements,” as if going from one grade to another. Isn’t that what transition is all about? Satisfying given requirements which qualifies you to advance to the next level. We would think that something is wrong with a student who has successfully passed one grade level and then the following year chooses to go back to the previous classroom instead of advancing to the next grade. Well that is exactly what happens in many families when the next generation chooses to ignore the valuable lessons their parents taught them whether it be what to do or even what not to do.
As a transitional generation, one is committed to spiritually processing their childhood by embracing "the meat" and leaving "the bones", if you will. They purposefully embrace the principles that will be valuable to the establishment of their family and legacy, leaving behind those things which would be detrimental to the progressive work that King-Father God desires for their posterity
No Punks Allowed!
Now to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Accepting the responsibility of being the transitional generation isn’t for the faint of heart. While the family is in transition, you will experience the frustration of the old, all the while having an appreciation for the new. There will be the re-defining of your former normal, transforming your belief systems according to your “Kingdom Normal” – King-Father God’s Imagination of you and for you and your family. There will be the internal battle to release the grip of what has always been for the reaching of what could always be. At times you will feel as if you’re Play-doe© , and God has the cookie cutter, removing all of the unnecessary parts of you that are no longer usable for the accomplishment of purpose and placing your family on a firm family foundational trust.
As difficult as this calling may be – the transitional generation – choosing not to accept the challenge is just postponing the inevitable which has generational ramifications. The bones you choose to carry and pass over into the next generation can have a negative effect for three and four generations. That means what you choose not to admit, confront, and deal with in your generation can possibly affect your grandchildren and great-grandchildren (Deuteronomy 5:9). However, because of the sacrifice of Christ, this doesn’t have to be. As the transitional generation, we can choose to endure our process, knowing God will give us the grace to make the necessary personal philosophy adjustments that will render a Kingdom blessing for thousands of generations (Exodus 34:7).
Allow me to leave this with you…is it possible that the stretching you have been experiencing is the pain of transitional birth? Is it possible that you are the one called for this assignment – to arrest faulty family mindsets and shift the family paradigm into the next dimension of Kingdom living? If so, as God told Joshua, who was called to take his generation into the territory their parents forfeited, “Be strong and very courageous!” (Joshua 1:7). Regardless of the pain of persistent pursuit you experience, every single bone you leave behind will be worth it. As my husband says, “You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. BUT you’ve got to choose.”
© 2011 Julianne Pearson
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