What Was Handed Down to Us?

Good morning from Colorado! One reason I love family history is that it gives me an opportunity to look beyond names, dates, and places. Sometimes, when I dig into the past, I find myself asking a different kind of question: What was handed down to us besides our last names? We inherit recipes, traditions, stories, music, ways of raising children, and ways of surviving hard times. But sometimes we inherit behaviors without ever knowing where they came from. That’s where history can become uncomfortable. In the Black American experience, there are behaviors and survival patterns that may have been shaped by generations of slavery, segregation, discrimination, and the need to navigate a society that was not always safe or welcoming. Some of those patterns may have served a purpose in one generation but may not serve the same purpose today. When you spend generations being taught to be cautious about who you trust, where you gather, how visible you are, or how you interact with people outside your immediate circle, those lessons can outlive the circumstances that created them.

I once heard a saying that goes something like this: “If someone gives you a snake, that’s all they had to give you—especially if that’s all they’ve ever been given.” That thought has stayed with me because it changes how I see what gets passed from one generation to another. If all a person has ever known is fear, they may pass down fear. If all they have known is survival, they may teach survival. If they were never shown how to build a healthy community, they may not know how to create it for the next generation. But here’s the part I don’t want us to miss: understanding what was handed to us does not mean we have to keep handing it down. Family history can help us identify the pattern, but God gives us the opportunity to decide what happens next. We can honor the people who survived before us without being required to repeat every survival strategy they needed.

The Call to Action

Today, I want you to think about your own family history. What did your family hand down to you besides your name? What traditions, attitudes, fears, strengths, or ways of dealing with life did you learn without ever questioning where they came from?

And then ask God a harder question:

“Is there something I received that You are asking me to stop passing on?”

We cannot change everything our ancestors experienced. But with God’s help, we can change what their experiences become in us.

Scripture

Romans 12:2 (KJV)

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

Sometimes transformation begins when we become willing to examine what we have always known.

Maybe the goal isn’t to reject everything that came before us.

Maybe the goal is to understand it, learn from it, heal what needs healing, keep what is good, and let God transform what no longer belongs in our future.

I’ll see you tomorrow for another 15 Minutes with God.