WATCH: Help Your Family Thrive for 3 Generations

Toss a pebble into a lake, and the resulting ripple impacts the entire body. In the same way, you have the ability to positively influence your family by taking small steps that create big impact.

I know I’ve seen this principle in my own life.

My childhood story is not a pretty one. It involves the divorce, death, and a lot of dysfunction.

I was only 5 when my father, who was an alcoholic, abandoned the family. My mom died of cancer four years later. My four siblings and I came home from her funeral to find that my stepfather had abandoned us, too. My following years were spent in a foster home and living with my older brother. I lived in some pretty dysfunctional and even dangerous environments. It wasn’t until high school that I became a Christian.

When I met and married my wife, Jean, I had a choice to make. I could either go with what was familiar to me and follow the unhealthy examples my father and stepfather had left for me – or I could choose to honor Jesus instead.

I’m glad I chose the route of intentional living. As a result, God changed the trajectory of my life.

But it’s not just my own life that’s been impacted – it’s the lives of our boys, Trent and Troy. And one day, God willing, it will be the lives of the children born to my sons and their future wives.

God will be faithful to secure an impact to the third generation of the Daly family. The waves created by that ripple effect will reach future generations.

Here at Focus on the Family, we’ve seen this simple truth play out time and time again during our more than 35 years of helping families thrive.

We’ve seen it happen so often we’ve called this impact the “GEN3 movement.”

GEN3 is a new initiative we’re launching – it will provide you with the practical resources and help you need to help impact your family for three generations. It’s a commitment you make to yourself and those around you to live according to biblical principles. To not let our pasts dictate our future.  To offer grace in the midst of life’s messiness. To faithfully follow the Lord’s leading.

Maybe your three generations will include your parents, your spouse and your kids.

Maybe, like in my case, it will include your spouse, kids and grandkids.

Whoever surrounds you and whatever your stage in life, you can implement the GEN3 promise.

And we’ll be here to help you along the way.

I want to share with you a website – www.focusonthefamily.com/gen3 -- where you’ll see a video where I share a bit more about my story, and why the GEN3 promise mean so much to me – and why I think it has the power to change you and your family.

GEN3 is part of the work Focus on the Family does every day. We contributed to helping save more than 130,000 marriages within the last year alone. You would love your help. Won’t you support the GEN3 movement? Partner with us to help your family and other families thrive for generations!

I’ll leave you with a video (which mobile users can watch here) featuring some of the staff here at Focus on the Family. They’ll share a bit about the vision behind GEN3 , what we’re doing – and why.

Learn more about “Irreplaceable,” the one-night theatrical event showing on May 6

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