My daughter and wife were coming home from work. As they entered the doorway, both were wearing their medical scrubs. My wife is a pediatric dentist and my daughter recently decided to pursue a career in dentistry. I beamed as I saw my daughter following in her mother’s footsteps. “It’s in her genes.” I thought to myself.
It’s in my genes as well. My father was a general dentist but I did not follow in his footsteps. We are all born with certain behavioral tendencies and personality traits, many of them genetically wired through complex genomic and environmental influences. While this can be important to understand and explain some of our actions and inherent skills, we are not trapped and irreversibly programmed by these genes. We have been endowed by God, our Creator, with the freedom to choose. We can choose to follow God, which is the reason we were created, or we can choose to disobey God and follow our own desires.
I am thankful that my daughter is following in her mother’s and grandfather’s footsteps. She may have been influenced by her genetics but she chose this career path. Neither I nor my wife encouraged her to follow this career. As proud as I am for her choice, I am most proud and grateful that many years ago, she chose to confess and repent of her sins and accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. We did not force this upon her. She read the Bible for herself, listened and learned from her Pastor and church, and chose to follow Jesus Christ.
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
Romans 5:12 (NLT)
No one is born a believer in Jesus Christ. We are all sinners. The destructive power of sin has corrupted our genetic makeup. Left to our own efforts, it is impossible to escape this fate. Thanks be to God that He has given us a solution. Faith and belief in Jesus Christ will restore the sacred relationship with God, our Creator. This is sanctification, the process by which Jesus Christ transforms and conforms us into His image. We can choose to follow our natural inclinations from our corrupted genes, leading to the inevitable path of death and eternal separation from God, or we can exercise our gift of choice that God has bestowed upon us. We can choose to follow God and live the life that He created us to have.
The choice is yours.
Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.
The Bereans Blog 