KEEPING SECRETS Pt 1

(Family Generational Curses & Sins)

Suzanne Somers wrote a powerful book about her family's secret of alcoholism. Reading her story, I was moved by her courage to lay herself open to criticism. How could she reveal such personal stuff about herself and her family?

How evil and Satan love to cower, hidden in the darkness. I concur with Suzanne's courage. Christ came not to bring peace but to divide and He talks about that division when one enters into the covenant of grace and salvation. Christ has entered my soul and life with His peace and healing. I am a NEW creation in Christ!

Presently, I mourn about the deadly poison inflicting my own family for over thirty years. My mother and sister have preferred to hide in the darkness and cower for fear of Christ illuminating their darkness. Many nights, I've tossed and turned in bed, grieving for what the enemy has robbed from me, a family that loves and communicates honestly.

To them, honesty means criticizing, back-biting and gossiping behind each others back with a cruelty and unforgiving vengeance that has greatly damaged each other and me...And they still embrace evil and sin. I weep in sadness, still praying every night for my mother and younger sister for 27 years, (since committed my life to Jesus Christ in 1983.) Change has yet to come.

But...God is more than able to heal and bring this family to a cleansing, redeeming state. They do not hear, preferring to ignore my phone calls or emails.

Abuse/neglect, drugs and alcohol all have the same results: alienation, bitterness, unforgiveness and self pity. Once an offense has not been forgiven, a door opens into the Satanic realm. Forgiveness has destroyed many friendships, families, marriages and lives. Jesus said, "If you do not forgive you will not be forgiven." Forgiveness is not a perquisite. It is a command.

My family situation has escalated into hideous, spiritual proportions. When a mother can tell a daughter that she will "sh...t" on her youngest daughters grave" and forbids three of her four daughters from attending her own (future) funeral...a line has to be drawn and evil must be confronted. When a sister tells her oldest sister who is being violently abused by a demon-possessed husband, "You deserve it for all your dalliances with these young guys" a line has to be drawn.

Having gone through so many evil and tempestuous storms and abuses, I'm no longer afraid to confront, because Christ has called me to stand against the principalities of darkness. Satan is a defeated foe, but still seeks to destroy the marriage and family unit. I will not cower before him, nor my mother or sister. I honor my mother and father as the Bible commands, but I cannot stand to watch them be used as Satan's pawn to damage other members of the family.

My journey to healing has been a long one. I've faced my demons of fear and compliance and taken responsibility for the privilege of choice. I'm no longer a slave to an abuser and know how how to wield my sword of courage and erect the appropriate boundaries. I've also learned about the healing balm of forgiveness...to "not let the sun down on my wrath." God allows us to be "righteously" angry until we go to sleep, but we must never carry that grudge into the next morning or we will open a door to Satan's domain.

Fight fire with fire??? Truly, the bonfire will rage. We must douse the flames with love and forgiveness and take responsibility for our part. With Christ all things are possible.