Our past doesn't have to define our future

The Bible is full of people who have had shady pasts, but they changed their direction and changed the outcome of their future.

And for the most part , we can trace who we have become to how we were raised or who raised us. But there are also examples of how we live our lives by what we trust and believe in. If we believe in the ways of this world we live the ways of this world. , In the case of our upbringing, a lot of the time we either are raised by christian people who haven't dealt w/ their own past and have carried it forward to us.

Such as with Jacob and Esau , Jacob was a supplanter, a deceiver . Esau cared more for the here and now from the world. Jacob came from a family line of Abraham  and Isaac who both had promises from God but, instead of waiting on God to fulfill those promises they took matters into their own hands to receive those promises, as did Jacob. Not waiting on God and taking matters into their own hands just succeeded in making them distant from God.

We may not all have grown up like Jacob with parents who knew God but, didn't obey him or follow him , or even just took matters into their own hands instead of waiting on God. Some of may have had Godly parents who loved the Lord and tried very hard to teach us to walk in the ways of God. But, we may have chosen the road that Esau took, the way of the here and now; the way of the worldly things over the way of  God.

But, that doesn't mean that we have to stay that way. We don't have to let our past determine our future. We can choose to meet God at the place of our end and His beginning. We can choose to say enough is enough, I want a better life from here on out. We are never to old or to far gone to change our future. God is waiting for us to come to him earnestly and say Lord not my way but yours.

The world may say, once a drunk always a drunk; but Jesus says come to me and I will set you free.
The world may say, once a liar always a liar but: Jesus says I've come to give you new life.
The world may say you are no good and worthless But, Jesus says : I love you so much that I have died for you.

We don't have to live in the destiny that our past created. Jesus is waiting with open arms to change our lives and give us a new destiny.