Coffee starts as beans and after grinding is run through a filter.  The filter captures all the grinds while letting through the robust flavor of the coffee bean.  No one would ever consider eating the beans and certainly not the grinds.  But the brew, with all its rich flavor, is the morning breath of heaven to the coffee fanatic.

So where am I trying to go with this.  I don’t really work for Folgers, so what is my point.  My point is that generations act like that filter.  Each generation can be thought of as that brew going through the filter.  Our parents give to us the brew of life and the generational filter can catch the grinds, those undesirable traits and habits, while letting through the flavorful brew, those characteristics and values that represent the best of who we are.  If brewed carefully, each generation has the chance to pass through the very best of who they are while leaving behind those flaws and mistakes that they may have uncovered along the way.  We have the chance, no choice, to let our children see our very best, those traits we want to pass on to our next generation.  We at the same time need to be honest about our flaws.  We are human after all and we do and will make mistakes.  We must be a good filter for our children, admit our mistakes, and trust that our filter will keep them from passing into the brew.  Or at least most of them.

The beauty of this theory ….. every generation re-filters the brew.