Your Future Impact
I come from a very godly heritage on my mother’s side. I have ancestors and living relatives who are missionaries, pastors, and laypeople deeply grounded in the Word who followed hard after God. I’m thankful for that.
Now pause for a minute and picture your own family tree. I’ll bet you thought mostly “up”, didn’t you? You considered your father and mother, your grandparents, and so on.
But consider how many children you have? How many will they have? We normally think of a family tree as the thing we are at the bottom of, instead of the thing we sit atop.
Consider God’s promise to Abraham. His descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. My father gave me the following verse from Genesis 12 when I first left home for college:
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Like Abe, this is not just about you or even your descendants who you might see face to face. God is up to something bigger that will affect a whole lot of people down the road…long after you’re dead.
God wants us to be aware of the dozens or hundreds or thousands of people “downstream” from us who will need to know about our godly heritage. So what are we doing about this, now?
Do we parents realize that our actions might affect not just our kids…but this entire planet for 100 years or more? Even if we are forgotten, What will our efforts yield? Godly shade, spiritual protection, nourishment?
We can either see this assignment as a burden or a privilege…an opportunity. Let us rejoice that the Lord can make us a strong link in a generational chain that serves and honors him. Make your heritage a positive thing in the spiritual formation of generations to come
(adapted from the YouVersion devotional “Being a Battle Ready Father” Manhood Journey)
