Good morning! It’s Wednesday, March 6, 2024. An inheritance is what you leave to someone, but a legacy is what you leave in someone. When that day comes, what will determine the impact of your life will not be what you have done. It will be what others are doing because of what you have done. Read on …
Today's Reading:
Deuteronomy 3,4; Psalms 36; Mark 13
Scripture
“Therefore, you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time." (Deuteronomy 4:40)
Observation
Much of what I do determines the trajectory of future generations – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Example 34 reminds us that the sins of the fathers reach the third and fourth generations. In other words, our habits, actions, and decisions leave a residual effect that influences, for better or worse, the generations to come. They will inherit these tendencies and have an initial predisposition toward them. On the other hand, my good habits and inclinations toward obedience will instill favorable tendencies in my children and grandchildren.
Application
I, too, will have inherited my father's tendencies. The good points will be easier for me to repeat, but so will the opposite. And those habits and tendencies he had that were not healthy will also be easy for me to replicate. Breaking that tendency will require intentionality and discipline.
No one is held hostage by generational sins, yet I must recognize the tendency and choose to stop the continuum! I must replace it with obedience to Christ and an intentional choice to end the proclivity in my generation. It will not be passed on.
I want to transfer a tendency to obey, to love God, and to keep His commandments into my future generations. God had given us, who are alive today, the amazing privilege of helping to pave or destroy the road they will traverse.
The best thing I can do to leave a legacy is to obey God's statutes and commandments. We can teach what we know, but ultimately, we will reproduce what we are.
Prayer
Father, help me leave a legacy of strength because the next generation will need to be prepared for an unraveling world. They will need a greater wisdom and a greater faith, so like David, may I prepare the tools for the Solomons who come after us that they may build a better future that will honor you so that, as Psalm 102 declares: “that the future generations, a people not yet created, will praise the Lord!”
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