Generational Responsibility

   It is easy, when you are in the prime of life and everything seems to be going well, to think of what you have accomplished. After all, you worked hard for those degrees, you put the time and effort into a job, you deserved the raises and the praise for a job well done, and you still had time to raise a family and keep them fed and clothed.

   I know, and I have been there. I have looked at my family, seen them happy, enjoying life and doing well in all they do. When I was caught up in all of that, I thought I was performing the role of the good Christian father, doing and saying all the right things. One of our goals as parents was to raise our kids so that they might be independent and able to take their places in the world and prosper, and not just monetarily, but in service to others and to God.

   I read these verses in Psalm 78 this morning:

"He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
7 so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;"

   I'm sure that those Israelite parents wanted to raise their kids and give them the best that they could, but God says that they did not do enough, because they did not live in such a way that their children knew where the blessings came from, that God was behind it all, blessing their family whether it was deserving or not. Oft times, we as parents give lip service to those Scriptural precepts, but live out the lie that we have done it by ourselves.

   The generations that follow us need to know what God says and what is important, but they also need to see us living it. Then they will know it is really important.

   I would pray that God would give us parents, and grand parents, too, the ability and the want-to, to live the life of gratitude and obedience, that we should, in God's eyes.