What always has been in your life and family, does not always have to be. There are two constants: Change and God. God always has been and always will be. That will never change, He is constant. However, every other thing will change. Life is continually changing, flowing and growing, turning and shifting. What you have today you will not always have, and what you lack today will one day be fulfilled. And God will be Lord over it all. The waves may be tossing you around, but it is God that controls the current.

I come from a long line of good cooks. We can basically put bacon grease on everything and make it delicious. I also come from generations of hard working women that could get crap done. My great-grandma owned and ran the country store like Mrs. Olson on Little House on the Prairie. My grandma was a single mother of 3 girls born all in a row, less than 1 year between each. She worked full time while managing a farm all on her own. She woke up, milked the cow, gathered the eggs, made breakfast, got the kids ready for school, worked a full day, then came home to kill, pluck and cook that chicken and hand wash laundry to hang out on the line. My mama worked in a factory making shoes and was the janitor at a school.

My people know how to work. That was passed down to me. You know what else was passed down to me … a slow metabolism, a love of carbs and a long line of being overweight. My people don’t wear swimsuits. My people sit it out because we’re too heavy. My people dress to cover. My people accept it as their lot in life to always be unhealthy.

But you know what my God says? He says I AM A NEW CREATION! He says just because it’s always been this way in my family, doesn’t mean it has to continue with me. My God says he has given me the awareness and the power to change things for every generation after me. My God says he is doing something new, and it starts with me.

What do you come from? Do you come from generations of brokenness? Do you come from a family history of struggle and strongholds? Have the marriages in your family always ended in disaster? Have addictions been passed down as an inheritance? Do you worry because your Mama taught you to worry? Are you a yeller because yelling is the only volume you know when things aren’t going right? Are you repeating the exact cycle you hated growing up in? Have you accepted it as normal because it’s all you know?

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

If everything other than God is guaranteed to change, then why can’t you get in agreement that you can change too? You are not who you used to be, nor are you obligated to repeat the cycles you come from. You are here in this time and place in history to break some cycles, demolish some strongholds, and impact future generations as the buck stops with you.

What needs to just STOP with you? It can. God has made you a new creation so this other stuff doesn’t have to continue for your children and grand children. When you know better, you can do better. Here you are now knowing better than those before you knew, so rise up and stop what isn’t serving a good purpose now.

I may have inherited a slow metabolism, but I now understand I have the ability to impact that. There are things I CAN do, and darn it, it’s up to me to live this life the best I can. I have a responsibility to take what I’ve been given and do the best I can do with it. I don’t have time to be unhealthy and sluggish. Shrinking back, playing little, and trying to hide my body just doesn’t have a place in this BIG Life I was created for. I get to take what God has given me, claim it, and use it.

SO DO YOU!

You may come from brokenness, but God has called you to be the new strong link which creates a new normal for your future generations to build upon. Declare that brokenness stops with YOU! Declare you are here, being made whole and holy, and your journey will pave the way for others. It will be worth it.

Now, let me tell you, breaking cycles and demolishing strongholds isn’t easy, nor is it a pleasant experience. Sometimes it is your worst possible scenario coming to fruition so change is the only possible option. God works in that. He works in the disaster to bring about new, beautiful growth. He allows the hurricanes to come tearing through our lives and create complete chaos. But in the process strongholds are demolished, chains are broken, and the path is cleared for new growth to begin.

Maybe that’s where you are right now … you’re in the middle of the chaos where what was simply cannot continue. Freaking fantastic. You have no idea the awesome work God is doing here on your behalf!

2 Corinthians 10:4 “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”

The Bibliical term “stronghold” is just that, a strong hold. The things that hold you in a cycle. A cycle of depression. A cycle of lack. A cycle of brokenness. A cycle of poor health. A cycle of disappointment. This is the cycle through which the enemy works to hold us back from our potential and keep us living a life far short of the goodness for which we were created. Recognize these strongholds for what they are … it’s more than what you came from and what is normal in your family … it’s what Satan is using to keep you stuck living a life short of what you could be living.

You have the DIVINE POWER TO DESTROY STRONGHOLDS.

Are you using it?

My daughters come from a cycle of abuse, neglect, and poverty. Their birth mother was abandoned by her family when she was 12. She became pregnant at 13 with her first child, then the next year had her second. She lived on the streets of Mexico and found the only way to survive was to become a prostitute. Their lives where chaotic and dangerous, but it was a means of survival. The cycle continued and one day she never came back for her babies, and those girls were abandoned just like she had been. It was the worst possible scenario … until God used it for good to break that cycle.

Those girls were taken to an orphanage where my husband and I had been crossing the border every month to volunteer. When we adopted them into our family, their last name was changed and the trajectory of their life was changed.

You have been adopted into the family of God, he has claimed you as his own, given you a new identity, and declared what was no longer has to be. You don’t have to continue a single thing you came from. You don’t have to walk that path. You have been made new and given the opportunity to live a radically different life. Your trajectory just changed.

Through Jesus, we are able to break free of the negative cycles in our lives and supernaturally redeem all that has been lost. God is willing and able to take every single thing that the enemy intended as harm to us, and now use it for good. Nothing will be wasted here. It will all be redeemed. And it starts right here, right now with you deciding your life can be better, and it can be different for you.

Make this your declaration:

God is doing a work in my soul. Strongholds are being broken here. I am the new link in the chain that changes things. He is doing a work within me, and it is not done by my own strength. This is all by grace through faith in the Almighty God. As I agree with God and co-labor with Him, I will break free of every ungodly cycle and step into the fullness of life offered to me.