affecting children before they are conceived

Romans 11:16 (Msg)
Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there’s bound to be some holy fruit.

What we eat affects our future children.

We are well aware that we affect our children through our DNA  in their physical characteristics such as color of hair and eyes, but did you know that the way we eat before our children are conceived will affect their health?  Dr. John Christopher in his book, Herbal Home Health Care states “The time we start preparing for an anti-disease susceptibility is many months before conception. If, however, that is too late and the child is here and sick at this time, we will have to work on the present cause, but this effort could be eliminated if we had started a few generations back.”

For more on this check out this article that points out what we do to our bodies can somehow leave an imprint on our genetic material and be passed along to the next generation.

How we live our lives affects our future children.

It’s interesting that what has been discovered in the scientific realm of how choices made nutritionally affect future generations is also what God has said in His Word concerning how we relate to Him.  Deuteronomy 5:9 You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Catherine Marshall speaks about this in her book, Something More. She writes, ” just as we can inherit either a fortune or debts, so in the spiritual realm we can inherit either spiritual blessings or those liabilities (unabashedly called ‘sins’ in scripture) that hinder our development into mature persons.”

Chuck Swindoll in his book, You and Your Child refers to this as “grandad’s bent” and points out that the bents in our lives toward particular sins must be broken for the good of the children that will come after us. Deuteronomy 5:29 “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be will with them, and with their children for ever!

Since the nutritional and spiritual choices made will directly affect the children that are yet conceived, then each choice should be carefully thought through, if not for your own good, but for the good of your future children.  Live life as a ‘God-planted, God-tended root which will result in some holy (pure, virtuous) fruit.’