Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh start. A new day to rise and take a serious inventory of the batons that we are passing onto the next generation. What are we handing off to our children?

A few questions every person who is a parent or an influencer/mentor of a younger person must ask themselves often……

1. What needs to END with me and NOT get passed onto the next generation?

2. What needs to BEGIN with me and become an inheritance that I can leave my children?

3. What has been handed to me that is good and needs to continue to be built upon and passed down to the generations after me?

Whether we are intentional or not in what we pass down to our children, let’s be clear, we ARE passing things down to them and they will pass most of these things onto our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Do we like what we are passing down? Is it kingdom fruit? Are we multiplying seeds of kingdom fruit or passing down chains of dysfunction?

The answer to this is usually……both. Not all we pass to our kids is bad and in being totally honest, it’s not always all good either.

I guess the main question here is… What inheritance do you want to leave to your children? Do you want them to battle while wearing the exact same chains of shame, unhealthy identity, wrong thinking that have held you captive? Or do you desire to walk free, stay free, and keep every generation after you walking free?

I imagine it like a relay race from one generation to the next. What batons are you passing? Which are you laying down? And which new ones will begin with you. You may not have been handed a baton of faith from your parents, but you can choose to pick it up and hand it down.

You may have been handed some pretty yucky batons: abuse, addiction, racism. The beautiful truth is you have the power to lay them down and NOT pass them forward. When we choose to follow Christ, He empowers us to walk in the earth like He did. And He can redeem all that’s been lost and restore your family back to prosperity. He can empower you to drop the batons that are counter to His kingdom once and for all.

My prayer is that families all across the globe, search their hearts and drop the baton of racism once and for all. It may not even be your fault that your holding it! It may have been passed from your great great grandparents down to your great grandparents and so on. By the time that baton was handed to you, it was so worn and woven into the fabric of the family, you didn’t even know you were picking it up. You got it round the dinner table through a few nasty jokes, a racial slur here and there from people older than you who you looked up to, a comment made in casual conversation between your parents, a warning from your papa.. These batons got handed to you without you even knowing. It’s time to bravely admit we may be holding them and then take the next brave step of laying them down. Take them to the cross and leave them there!

And racism is just one example of a baton that needs to be bravely put down. There are more and Holy Spirit can speak into each heart what batons are good and need to keep being handed down and which ones need to be dropped once and for all.

Jesus abolished every single thing that could divide his people. When we participate in anything that divides rather than unifies, we walk counter to the life Jesus died for us to have.

Gorgeous child of God, you were designed for victory and abundant life. You were designed for God given destiny. You were designed to leave a mark in this earth for the kingdom. Bravely approach the Lord today and ask Him to reveal your batons: which to keep passing, which to pick up, and which to leave at the cross.

Dear Heavenly Father,

You are gooooooood and gentle and kind as we seek to grow in You. Lord, help us to get a serious about what we are passing. Forgive us of our sins and cleanse our hearts, our homes, and ultimately our generations. Let us raise up strong men and women of God who are seeking Your heart above all else.

In Jesus’s name, Amen.