Family history

When we tell the stories of our families, there’s always the scoundrel that defies the rules and the good child whose success is celebrated. There are those crazy moments when all appears lost; then, a breakthrough changes everything! Of course, our histories include tragedies that came from nowhere which are unexplained even a century later. We look back and find wise and foolish choices; decisions that proved right and those that produced only regrets.

The family event that has had the most effect on my life was my paternal Grandfather’s conversion sometime around 1935. A Danish immigrant who arrived in the United States with a formal religion but no real love for God, the Lord found him when he visited a tent revival in a little town in Iowa when he was a middle-aged man, changing his life and mine! Much of who I am today is clearly the result of the choice that Walter Scott made when he accepted Christ and became part of a little Assemblies of God church in Truesdale, Iowa. That’s the real legacy of my Grandpa.
I am reading the story of the patriarchs in Genesis. Their entire lives are summed up in a few chapters which allow us to see choices they made and the results years later. Family sins get repeated in subsequent generations. Their choice of wives and even the places they lived change the courses of their lives. But, through it all, God is working out His plan to bring into existence the people of the Lord through whom He would bless the world. I doubt that even Abraham understood the implications of the promise “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing." (Genesis 12:2, NIV)

Through all their failings and successes, God’s hand guides. The legacy that counted most was the spiritual one, the passing of the faith in the Lord, generation to generation. Abraham’s God becomes the God of Isaac. In time, the God of Isaac becomes Jacob’s God.

What kind of legacy will you leave to your family?
When you grandchildren remember you will it be your spiritual heritage that they value most?
Will they be blessed by a foundational faith that you laid for their lives?

Spiritual legacies are created by consistent practices of faith, by dedication to godly things, by choices that demonstrate our most fundamental values. Paul, writing to a younger pastor named Timothy, reminds him of the legacy that blesses him. "I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you." (2 Timothy 1:5, NLT)

Let me leave you with a familiar passage found in Deuteronomy. It notes that we can only pass along what lives in us!  Read it and begin to write a family history that will reveal to those who follow you that you were a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!  Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts.
Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children.
Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street;  talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.  Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates."
(Deuteronomy 6:5-9, The Message)

__________

We're pilgrims on the journey of the narrow road,
And those who've gone before us line the way;
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary,
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace.

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
Let us run the race not only for the prize,
But as those who've gone before us,
Let us leave to those behind us,
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives.

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone,
And our children sift thru all we've left behind,
May the clues that they discover, and the mem'ries they uncover
become the light that leads them to the road we each must find.

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful!
May the fire of our devotion light their way!
May the footprints that we leave,
Lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful!

Find Us Faithful
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