Passing Down Heritage

My sis and I were reminiscing the other day about the places we lived in our childhoods.

One was on a "dead end" street. We were the last house and our house had a freeway exit ramp in our front yard. Just a cyclone fence with a few vines separated us from cars that whizzed by morning, noon and night. I drove by the house the other day, it now has a high, sound proof barrier between it and the highway.

OK, then, our neighborhood was a safe place. We knew all the neighbors down the street. Next door were the S*****. They were on the same side of our cul-de-sac with an older couple next. Now started the houses on both sides. As you walked along, the left house had a family that had 10 children. You pick an age, they had it. Across the street from them was were "The Sherriff" lived. Nobody, not nobody, messed with his yard, trees, etc. You might go to jail (in our child's minds). Next to their home was my introduction to an outdoor pool. It was probably 10 feet across, but it was huge in my mind. A loving couple opened it up to all the neighborhood kids, too. I could go on about the neighbors, but...

Now, on the heritage part. My mother, bless her soul, was deathly afraid of water. That is swimming water. I don't know why, but she ingrained in me that I needed to be afraid also. Perhaps she was thrown into a body of water as a child with the old saying "sink or swim". Anyway, she did not like it. Read more about this on The Ditch post.

As a matter of fact, she heard that you could get a cramp if you went into water too soon after eating, so we were not allowed to "run through the sprinkler" (our form of cooling off in the summer) until we had waited a while.

So, as I recognized this fear in myself, I resolved that I would NOT pass this along to my children. As far as I know, they are all very comfortable in any water and swim wonderfully.

Are there things in our lives that we pass along without thinking about the impact they will have on others around us? Does your lack of submissiveness in your marriage shows your daughter "you don't have to be under his thumb". (contrary to scripture) Does my shyness translate to "uncaring".  Does my distrust of an individual make it harder for my children to trust?

Positive side, do your children see you pray about a situation and then see the peace it brings? Do they see the love you have for the Lord? Do you let them into the places of your heart that you have given over to the Lord?

A few years after we moved from the "freeway house" about 1960's.

These are things I wish I had thought out more as I was raising my family. Just something to think about.