The Blessing by John Trent and Gary Smalley
Net-out by Jess Martin
A study of blessing always beings in the context of parental acceptance.
The blessing also plays a part in protecting and even freeing people to develop intimate relationships.
The Meaning of Blessing
When you bless someone, you are really saying "I choose to treat you as someone incredibly valuable in my life."
The word of bless (and a similar word, for honor) also carries the idea of adding weight or value to someone.
When we bless someone, we are deciding–choosing–to hold on to the fact that he or she is of high value.
When we say "May the Lord bless you", we are first recognizing and acknowledging that any strength we have to bestow the blessing comes from an all-powerful God. Even the very breath of life they have to speak words of blessing comes from him.
Five elements of the blessing:
- Meaningful and appropriate touch.
- A spoken message.
- Attaching high value to the one being blessed.
- Picturing a special future for him or her.
- An active commitment to fulfill the blessing.
Word pictures: These vivid descriptions provide a natural way for someone to remember the blessing they have been given, often triggering the memory of the blessing when they see the objects in real life.
Curses: If hurtful patterns from the past are not faced and broken, they are likely to repeat themselves in the next generation.
Blessing our parents
For anyone who has missed the blessing, I would recommend understanding as much as possible about his or her parent's background. In the vast majority of cases, parents who do not give the blessing have never received it themselves. We may even come to realize they need the blessing as badly as we do. And that realization can be the catalyst that frees us to seek the blessing from a more reliable source.
One of the most powerful ways of reversing a curse that you have received is to give the blessing to others.