"For the entire Law is fulfilled in in this one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."—Gal 5:14

What will your footnote be?

Added on by Lucas Necessary.

My dad chased my brother off with a shotgun. We had three SUVs of FBI agents show up once. His marriages number in the double digits. And when I was young, he "faithfully assembled" as a "Christian," and no one was the wiser because of his charisma. 

I've heard people say, "Man, stay away from her, the family's messed up and so is she."  
2nd Kings records a string of kings who appear as mere footnotes, "Did evil much like his forefathers and then died." "Reigned for a little bit doing evil like those before him and then got whacked." What would you want God to have written about you? "Crazy like her mother, kept sinning, then she died," or, "He was abusive like his father before him, showed up to all the family camps, continued in evil, then he died?" 

If your family is dysfunctional, you don't have to be. You can change your footnote, but you have to admit that you're sick, and that your family is. You have to be willing to go through the pain of confrontation and breaking the cycle, of saying, "Mom/dad, I'm sorry, but I'm going to overcome where you have failed." Look at specific problems in your family, like alcohol abuse, abusive language, partnering with non-Christians, etc., and be on high alert for them in your own life. Change them. Don't quit doing bad, but instead start doing good, because "the one practicing righteousness is righteous." (1 John 3:7)