God’s design is for fathers to teach their children the ways of God ( Ephesians 6:4). When this plan is not fulfilled it is easy for a child to do wrong and say ‘if my father would have raised me differently I wouldn’t be this way.’ Let’s stop using the excuses of our father’s and learn from some great examples. 

Past generational mistakes do not have to continue for generation after generation. You can change the course for your family.

Consider Noah. His father Lamech died a few years before the flood; apparently his father Methuselah died the year of the flood ( Genesis 5). Remember Noah worked on the ark for around 100 years. What prompted God’s command to build the ark was that every man’s thoughts and lives were wicked. Only one found grace in God’s sight, Noah ( Genesis 6). This implies that while Noah labored tirelessly to save his own wife and children, his father and grandfather were probably wicked. ‘Noah did, according to all that God commanded him, so he did’ ( Genesis 6:22). If in fact that Methuselah was still alive when the flood came, think how hard it was for him to leave his grandfather behind. If he had been foolish enough to say, ‘If it was good enough for my grandfather, it is a life good enough for me,’ then the human race would have been finished.  

Consider Abraham, the father of the faithful. He didn’t have a father who was faithful. Joshua 24:2 reveals ‘And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods. Abraham is remembered in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 as one who would leave his home and even offer his son for God. But he apparently had a father who wouldn’t even acknowledge the one true God. Abraham changed his family’s course. Joshua used this change as the introductory verses for his great plea 13 verses later.Joshua 24:15  “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” 

If you didn’t have a father or mother who directed you spiritually, accept Joshua’s challenge to not use this as an excuse, but instead to use this as an opportunity to change the direction of your family! Look how Abraham’s change of direction from his father affected future generations for thousands of years. It’s your choice, ‘not your father’ choose whom you will serve.