2 Corinthians 5:16-19— ¹⁶ Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. ¹⁸ Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

So many times in today’s world we hear about people’s past and that’s why they do the things that they do today.  We get sometimes are trapped in the stigma that what our parents were, that’s what we will be.  Or that one mistake in our past labels us for our entire future.  We get so caught up in the past, and what we came from, that we let it become us.  If someone comes from an abusive home, they will become an abuser, or always look for abusive relationships.  If someone comes from a poverty-stricken family, they will never get out of that situation.  But it is then that we have to overcome, we have to strive to do better, we have to reach for a better life

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I was lucky growing up, unlike so many people of my generation, my parents are still together after all these years.  I had great parents that always taught me the value of hard work, and the importance of family.  So no I didn’t come from a broken home, I didn’t have an abusive father, I didn’t have to deal with a lot of things that many deal with today.  So no I can’t talk first hand to these situations, maybe my outlook would be different on this subject, but I know that there are people who overcome the demons of their past.

No matter what is in your past, it is not your past that makes you.  Take the things from your past and let them shape you.  The things of your past should help you make decisions, they should help you teach others and try to lead them in a better way.  Take your old mistakes and learn from them, take the dark things of your past and find ways to not go down those roads again, learn from others mistakes, and try not to repeat them.

Take the past, put it behind you, learn from it, don’t dwell in it, use it to teach others, and go forward making your own history not shaped by your past.