Generational Curses: Will You Break the Curse or Will You Let the Curse Break You?

Generational Curses: Will You Break the Curse or Will You Let the Curse Break You? Pt. 1 

TRIGGER WARNING: This blog discusses the topic related to generational trauma, family cycles, and deeply ingrained emotional and spiritual patterns. It may bring out strong emotions or memories for those who have experienced generational struggles. If these topics are sensitive for you, please proceed with caution and consider seeking support if needed. 

I’m glad to see my ForevaBlack Babies are back for another post; this topic is very heavy, even for myself and I know it will be for others, but I am here to bring awareness to a lot of things that are uncomfortable to talk about. For this topic, I am going to get into the physical, mental, and spiritual side of things; so, this will need a part two to this. First, let’s get into what generational curses are and what they look like. Generational curses are negative patterns and behaviors, struggles passed down through families. These are things that have a spiritual, emotional, or psychological perspective. Now, let’s talk about what these generational curses can look like; it can be addiction, toxic relationships & dysfunctional marriages, parenting styles, poverty mindset, educational limitations, fear of success, low self-esteem, health related, death, unforgiveness and bitterness, etc. You see this list of nasty things that are possibly in your bloodline, and they keep repeating itself; how will we overcome this?  

Addiction is a huge negative trait that is passed down in the African American community; alcoholism and being dependent on other drugs, such as crack, meth, or coke. Addiction can be a learned behavior, inherited behavior; it’s a coping mechanism for people, an unhealthy one. Most of the time, this stems from something that has happened to them that may have been dark, and very traumatic and this is an outlet for them. Alcoholism and other substances have destroyed us as a community and it can lead to death, or simply being addicted forever with no help. I encourage people to get help, talk to your family members who you see are in this state or may be headed in this direction, get them to talk someone... or attend AA meetings, there are so many resources these days to get help and help change our unhealthy past that has been passed onto us.  

Secondly, toxic relationships and dysfunctional relationships are important to me because this is another one of the huge generational curses displayed within our community. Have you seen a family, whether it is yours or others, that are in a constant cycle of being in toxic situations or marriages that never last? Also, they may even bring kids into the equation which makes the situation 10x more complicated. Emotional or physical abuse are usually present in these situations, and these are behaviors they saw when they were growing up and when they have children, they show them the exact same things and it repeats the cycle all over again instead of breaking it. Are you seeing the pattern of how our negative behaviors are truly damaging? It causes you to be unable to create healthy relationships and will take those patterns into their relationship or marriage. A person can see that their parents got taken advantage of, and beat on, or told nasty things 24/7 and they’ll enter a situation and think this is love and that they must stay? That is not true, there is always better on the other side. This generational thing MUST be broken; we must want better for ourselves, our children, and grandchildren. Start now, and not later.  

The last one I will go over on this post before part two will be the poverty mindset; poverty mindset is experienced in most black families. There are some of us who make it out of this mindset, and there are others who stay stagnant in their finances. Many of us did not come from families with a lot of money or the resources to get it, but it is up to us to create generational wealth for our children and grandchildren. It is all a mindset; when you speak things like “I will never overcome these financial struggles” or “There’s no way I will be able to build money up for myself and family”, your heart and mind begins to believe these things, and cause you to stand still in one place, financially and mentally. You can do it; you can create a life that seems far and impossible. We have so many African Americans in the industry that are wealthy and came from an unimaginable background. Why do you think you cannot do the same?  

That’s all I want to share for today, part two will be coming Wednesday. Generational curses are real, and we do not always want to discuss or face the truth, but we must. We must look generational curses in the face, fight and defeat it... we cannot let this overcome us, our children, and our next generations. I want to see my people come up, in more ways than one; we do not have to struggle. Coming from the struggle does not mean we have to stay in it, we can conquer anything we put our minds to. I’m going to leave you with some scriptures that can help in these situations. 

Exodus 20:6 “but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” 

Galatians 5:1 “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.” 

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” 

Proverbs 13:22 “A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.” 

I hope this message has helped you all in some way, and that it brings a change out of you and your family. Share this with anyone you feel should see it and be on the lookout for the next part. I will cover the rest of the generational things that are passed down, and ways we could overcome it; financially, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Thank you all for the love and support!