We love building relationships. Subscribe to our blog to receive weekly encouragement in your email inbox.
Visit Our Store
Donate
You can also mail checks, made out to IRSM, to:
Iron Rose Sister Ministries
PO Box 1351
Searcy, AR 72145
IRSM is a 501(c)(3), so donations are tax-deductible.
Blog
More blog entries below
Written by Johanna Zabala, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Ecuador 
Based on my life experience, I often think about the fact that each child is a product of the relationships, education, and environment that were influenced by the adults with whom they grew up.
Beloved sisters, each of us has gone through the childhood phase when we were able to grow and move forward. I consider those first years of life to be of great importance in developing the various interpersonal relationships we find and develop later in each subsequent cycle of life. These relationships become the foundation for the young person or adult that we are today.
When I look back on the age of childhood, many memories come to mind. However, there are other events that I cannot remember, likely because those moments were not significant in my early life. No doubt, my learning process as a child was different from yours; but for each of us, learning will continue as we acquire additional information and attitudes that we can put into practice as time goes by.
I learned everything from my environment: walking, talking, and responding to my surroundings, fundamentally influenced by my maternal grandmother who demonstrated a wide variety of teaching patterns.
As a result of growing up in a dysfunctional family, I experienced significant consequences for not knowing how to control my natural fears. Fear was one of the first emotions that caused me a lot of insecurity, emotional blockage, and mistrust in communications within my environment. This is what I continue to struggle with: letting the Holy Spirit heal my fears so they don't become obstacles to doing what I need to do or passing them on to the ones I love.
But despite my challenging childhood, the negative impact of absentee parents, an inflexible upbringing, and a lack of attention to my need for communication, I grew up. Today, through understanding, forgiving, and breaking away from past situations of great uncertainty which have threatened to wreak havoc on my present relationship with Christ, I can strengthen my conviction, having been rescued from the destructive influence of my earthly parents. This aligns with what I have read and reflected on in 1 Peter 1:18. To become a person approved by the Heavenly Father, I have decided to live my new life in Christ, as described in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV), “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
Every day, comforted by the quotation above and in my relationship with the Lord Jesus, I feel the need to continue to learn to be free from what damages the soul, mind, heart, and faith in God. We must not forget that we are free and that there will always be freedom in Jesus Christ, as stated in the letter to the Galatians, chapter 5 verse 1, which reminds us again that "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
When we are aware that in the old life before knowing Christ, there were moments of destruction of what was good and pure, which came from God, we can strengthen ourselves and experience the freedom to be and act according to God's heart, which is a great blessing.
To be free is to not repeat the sin that separates us from the presence of God. It is knowing how to choose between good and evil and being called to freedom to serve one another out of love. Being free, we are separated from evil, not allowing the slavery of sin or guilt to lead us to do the opposite of the will of our sovereign God.
To be free is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, whom we receive in our new birth in the waters of baptism (Acts 2:38). He frees us from fear and assures us that God is with us until the end of the world and that He redeems us for eternal salvation.
There are many blessings from God's freedom in the Christian life; it is a privilege of the immense love of our Creator, who knows us and always covers us with eternal love (see Jeremiah 31:3).
To conclude, I encourage you to remember what was admirable from your childhood and to always cultivate innocence, humility, forgiveness, and a smile, so you can become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, fulfilling what is mentioned in Matthew 19:14.
Written by Aileen Bonilla, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Ecuador 
Breaking the generational cycle of disobedience is a very big responsibility placed on our shoulders by God. However, He promises to be by our side at all times, and not only this, He also promises to lighten our load because His yoke is easy (Matt. 11:28-30) and His grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
With this in mind, let me share some thoughts about the generational cycle between Saul and his son Jonathan. The scriptures tell us that God chose Saul to be the first king of Israel. King Saul had serious character flaws, so why would God anoint such a man to rule His people? The answer may not be totally clear to us, but it is evident that God allowed this situation so that His people would realize that no human king could compare to Him, and that absolutely no one could be as good as God Himself.
Saul was an arrogant man. However, the position he had been given was not what made him prideful; it simply exposed what was already in his heart (Prov. 23:7). Being the first king of Israel certainly must have reinforced his pride. This king did not trust God: he made foolish and unwise oaths (1 Sam. 14:24), and he did not comply with God's commandments. This leads us to conclude that he did not fear God. He did not value even the life of his own son (1 Sam. 14:44); however, in spite of this, Jonathan decides in his heart not to be like his father.
The Bible describes Jonathan as a brave, strong man, and a good warrior, but it also describes him as a man of love (1 Sam. 18:1), a loyal friend, and a good son. Above all, he was a young man who feared God and lived to assure that nothing or no one would hinder Jehovah's purposes.
Jonathan knew that the Spirit of God was no longer in his father. Recognizing this truth was very critical, because everything Saul did was subject to his human nature, rather than out of a desire to please God. As a result, it was impossible to trust him. Jonathan decided not to be like his father. To make such a crucial decision, his bond with the Lord must have been very close since God is the only one who can help us break these generational chains.
Any one of us can choose not to follow the same destructive path as our parents if we grew up in a non-Christian family. Asking God to help us break those unfaithful generational cycles will bring light not only to our current family, but will also build future generations of believers, and God will pour out His blessings on all of them. It all begins with creating a close relationship with God. Then He will show us what sinful attitudes we have inherited from our unbelieving ancestors which will enable us to break the generational cycle and be transformed into faithful followers.
This is also a way of fulfilling the command of Jesus when He says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26 NIV). Jonathan was not willing to sacrifice obedience to Jehovah for the unholy whims of his father. Many times, without realizing it, we carry bitterness in our hearts, because our parents were also bitter. We downplay the importance of church involvement because we do not believe that God requires this, and as if that were not enough, at least in Latin America, faithfully congregating every Sunday with the Lord’s church is no longer a priority.
Jonathan was clear about his purpose on this earth—to give glory to God at all times—even to the point of offering his own life so that his best friend David could live, assuring that the messianic lineage would continue its course until it reached Jesus. In the same way, we must fervently ask that God show His purpose for us so that we can live giving Glory to Him, and above all, accept His grace every day to break family yokes that are not healthy. Building a spiritual life that transcends for many generations depends on our effort and courage, but above all, it depends on the openness and sensitivity of our hearts toward the voice of God. Saul closed his heart to Jehovah; therefore, the Spirit of God left him.
Today, I first encourage you to pray and ask God to show you His purpose for your life. Second, ask Him to help you live for this purpose and, in this way, He will break every chain that ties you to the past.
