How curious are you about your ancestors? Do you ever think about what they were like? Do you even know their names?
I have a few things around our house that belonged to relatives I've never met. One of the most noticeable artifacts is a small coal stove that we use like an end table. It belonged to my great-great grandparents who heated their home and cooked on it when they owned a farm in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
I would love to be able to have a conversation with the generations that came before me. I'm very curious about what their personalities were like and how their voices sounded. I'd love to know what made them laugh and what motivated them to choose the life they chose.
I would also like to express my thanks to them. I have experienced some difficult seasons in my life, but their lives were harder. When I'm tempted to complain, I often think about my great-grandfather, Joseph Lewis, who used to spend every day digging coal and eventually died in a mine subsidence while he was still a very young man.
My life is easier because of the sacrifices that were made by the generations that preceded me. They inched our family forward, one step at a time. I see this in the investments my parents made in my life and I see this in the investments their parents made in them.
And it's my desire to help set up the next generation of our family for success. Not success as the world would define it, but success like we see described in Scripture. More than anything, I want my children and the generations that come from them to know the Lord and walk with Him closely. I want them to prioritize His ways and His desires. I want them to love Jesus and listen to the counsel of the Holy Spirit, and then invest in their children and grandchildren as well. This is the aim of those who revere and respect the Lord.
When the psalmist tells us about the man who fears the Lord and delights in His commandments, he also makes it clear that walking with the Lord in this manner will have a generational impact. He says, "His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed." (Psalm 112:2). Those who prioritize the desires of the Lord are setting up their children for success.
If the righteous man's children are "mighty in the land," this conveys the thought that they will have their act together. They very well might be prominent and respected among their peers. Responsibility and power may be entrusted to them. The blessing of the Lord will produce good fruit in their lives in obvious ways. As they walk with the Lord, just as their parents modeled for them, their lives will testify to God's goodness and provision.
I love the ideas conveyed in these verses, but I'm also reminded of righteous people in previous generations who had children that, at least for a season, rejected the faith and wisdom of their parents. I think of King Josiah (2 Kings 22). Josiah loved the Lord and led the nation of Judah in such a way that he prioritized obedience to the instruction found in Scripture. His heart was sensitive to the Lord's leading, and even though he set his children up for success, they embraced evil after his death and rejected the blessings that were offered to them.
I mention that as a word of caution and a word of encouragement. You may offer great blessings to the generations that come after you, and they may, unfortunately, reject those blessings. They may reject them temporarily because of immaturity, or they may reject them permanently because of their overall rejection of the Lord, but you can't control what someone else does with the gifts you offer them.
I remember seeing this in the life of one of my friend's parents. His parents were blessed with four children, and his father in particular was a very wise pastor that I personally gleaned a lot of wisdom from. One of their children dealt with an ongoing mental illness that made for a complicated relationship, even though they always kept working on it. Another child completely embraced the ways of this world and rejected his parents' faith and lifestyle.
But two of their children knew the Lord deeply, respected their parents' example, followed in their footsteps, and dedicated their lives to serving the Lord through vocations in educational leadership and church ministry. Their story is a helpful reminder for parents that you can model what it means to walk with Christ and give your children every opportunity to receive the wisdom and blessings that come with that, but in the end, they are personally responsible for what they do with what has been offered to them, just as we are personally responsible for what we do with the blessings offered to us.
As I look at the counsel of Psalm 112:2, my heart is filled with the desire to do everything I can to make investments in the generations of my family that will come after me. I regularly pray for them, and I seek the Lord's guidance as I aim to set them up for success. And as best as I can tell, there are several ways we can honor the heart of what this portion of Scripture is teaching while we attempt to guide our children.
1. Model the faith
Years ago, I received a letter from someone I had once hired to work for me when I was directing a summer camp and conference center. She asked me if I had ever written on the subject of leadership because she enjoyed working for me and was now in a position of leading other people. She was trying her best to remember how I kept morale high and how I motivated the staff to do a good job in their respective departments.
As you can imagine, reading something like that made me feel genuinely encouraged, and I wanted to give her a thoughtful answer that might actually help her with her leadership dilemma.
There are two things I can think of that contributed to high morale and a motivated staff. I found ways to express my appreciation, and I never asked them to do anything that I wasn't willing to do alongside them. I was hired to lead that ministry, but I didn't resist getting my hands dirty when it was time to serve. No job was beneath me, and I modeled that for the staff.
The same principle applies to our faith as well. Just consider the power of your example to your children. Remember the ways spending the first twenty years of your life observing your mother and father living out their faith in Christ impacted you.
The Apostle Paul considered Timothy like a son in the faith. He showed him many things about what it looks like to follow Christ, preach the gospel, and serve people for Christ's glory. Then he reminded Timothy that one of the most powerful things he could do for the benefit of those he was leading and serving was setting an example for them.
Paul told Timothy, "set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." (1 Tim. 4:12b). That's what the Lord wants us to do as well as we invest in those who come after us. We model the faith by setting an example. We demonstrate our love for Christ in what we believe, what we say, what we do, and how we treat others.
2. Teach the faith
Sometimes I look at my kids and see the aptitude the Lord has given them for certain tasks, and it amazes me. One excels at teaching. One fights fires and saves lives. Another is a skilled woodworker, and another styles hair. Along the way, as they pursued these tasks, they found the teachers they needed and took time to learn from them. These are skills that required outside instruction to develop proficiency.
Our faith works the same way. We have not been designed to figure out the nuances of faith without outside help. The Holy Spirit opens our minds to understand the truth and He guides the words of our teachers to instruct us in the counsel of God's Word. Jesus said, "A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher." (Luke 6:40).
If you want to pass along your faith in Christ to the generations that come after you, teach them. And if you feel like there are things you don't know about the faith, just start with what you do know. When your children ask you questions, write them down and find the answers. Your willingness to teach them will have the double benefit of adding to your knowledge and understanding as well.
3. Act on the faith together
Having knowledge, but failing to act on what you know, is worse than ignorance. It's belligerence. But gaining knowledge that you put into practice produces fruit that reinforces the effectiveness of what you believe.
Our faith in Christ is an active faith. It isn't meant to be exclusively contemplated in isolation, it's meant to be actively utilized in the midst of others. When the Lord saves a person, He also equips them to serve others for His glory. As we serve others, the faith of those we serve is strengthened along with ours. That's how God has designed life and discipleship among believers to work.
"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:" (1 Peter 4:10)
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35)
The Christian faith will become more real and less theoretical to your children when you find opportunities to act on the faith together. Demonstrate the joys of serving for Christ's glory and invite them to join you.
4. Surround yourself with the faithful
Several years ago, I came across a video of me that was taken when I was 15 years old. I don't know if I was more entertained or embarrassed when I saw it, but I couldn't help but notice the way I spoke and the way I phrased what I said. It was completely influenced by where I lived and the people I spent the most time with at that season of life. That was unmistakable to me the second I heard it.
The people we surround ourselves with will influence everything about us. That's why it's important to surround your children with those who know and love Jesus. Prioritize your family's involvement in the local church. Give your children the opportunity to interact with older believers who have a lifetime of Christ-centered wisdom to pass along.
““Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” ”
There are all kinds of things you will spend time doing during the course of your life, but few things will make a lasting impact like setting up the next generation for success. May your offspring be mighty in the land. By God's grace, may they be a generation that welcomes the Lord's blessings and serves Him wholeheartedly.
© John Stange, 2022
