Word of the Week - Family Legacy

“One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.”  -Psalm 145:4

In follow to last week’s Word of the Week message on “Children”, see below, I wanted to share this message on Family Legacy.

Family is the first institution God created for instilling values for the purpose of preserving culture for generational impact.  As outlined in the verse above, God desires for every person to have a spiritual heritage.  The reality is that God instituted family so we can train and equip our children with godly values, so they live to their full God potential and pass godly values on to their children, and live multi-generationally. “Train them up in the way he/she should go, And when they are older they will not depart from it” Proverbs 22:6   God imparted into all humans a innate desire to be part of something that will last.  “He has set eternity in the human heart” Ecclesiastes 3:11

Building healthy and intentional family identity:  We serve a God of order, peace, and continuity.  “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace”. 1 Corinthians 14:33 To understand how to build healthy families we must first become healthy people. This means we have to be willing to do the hard work personally and within our marriages.  As I stated in last week’s “word of the week” on Children, it is challenging to give what we do not have.  It starts with us as leaders of our families having a personal intimate abiding relationship with Christ so He can impart His wisdom into our hearts and minds.  We do live in a broken world and without God’s covering in our lives our families will be susceptible to the reality of generational curse with the sins of the fathers flowing down to the next generation.  This is the way of the world and our culture at large.  So how do we break this cycle?  First and foremost, we submit our families to God and put our faith and trust in Him.  But we must do our part by building healthy and intentional communication and trust within our families.  This is done by telling stories and celebrating victories.  If we look back in history and see families that had generational impact, they were very intentional about sharing stories of what God had done “Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned” Job 8:8 and they were constantly taking time out to celebrate and remember by hosting festivals. “When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as promised, observe this ceremony.  And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean?’ then tell them. ‘ It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when He struck down the Egyptians.” Exodus 12:25-27

Family values, vision and purpose:  Family identity is key to building a godly family Heritage.  Our families must have a strong understanding of who we are and what makes us the Donner’s or Smiths etc.  Family values define the moral and ethical principles of behavior for a family.  Values can be passed down from one generation to the next.  This is the most important Heritage we can give our kids and descendants.  Many of our godly values are apparent from our families of origin, but some need to be discovered and can often times be revealed as we think about our past and some of the defining stories/events in our lives.  Our family went through our first family values exercise together over 10 years ago and since then we have taken time in family meetings to talk about our values and assess how we are living out these values.  Asking questions to determine if we are intentionally sharing and communicating these values with our kids and grandkids. Our families stated values include: Faith, Family/Heritage, Perseverance, Health and Generosity.  See attached Family ID worksheet for your reference on family values exercise.  This is a great tool for you to use with your family. 

I believe that Vision and purpose are key to Heritage living.  “Without vision the people perish” 29:18 I find it interesting that the prior verse is related to disciplining our children “Discipline your children, and they will give you peace; they will bring you the delights you desire”. Proverbs 29:17   If you cannot see where you are going (Vision) and understand why you are going there (Purpose), it is hard to know what to do.  Lack of Vision and Purpose leads to wandering through life and leaves us lacking identity making us much more susceptible to attacks from the enemy of our soul.  Purposeful living with vision towards something of eternal value is like medicine to our soul that gives us energy, health and protection.  This is the abundant life that Jesus speaks about in John 10:10 when He says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full”.  Live life on offense with Vision, Mission and Purposes and you will have life. 

Amy and I attended a JH Ranch event this week in Tennessee called Harvest.  It was a 3-day retreat where we had the opportunity to reflect on what God has done in our lives and family, much of which transpired through the JH/Outback ministry, and dream and develop our faith and vision toward what God has in store in the future.  God moved in our hearts by giving us fresh revelation and reinforcing our family vision of building  “Lasting goldy Heritage for 10 Generations” by living out our mission of “Abiding in Christ, Serving Others and Living Generously”.

Having a Heart of gratitude and generosity is key:  There is definitely power in living intentionally and taking time to discover, define and write down your family Values, Vision, Mission, and Purpose if we desire to have generational impact.  In fact, statistics say we are 90% more likely to achieve our long-term goals if we write them down.  That being said, the most important and defining factor is how we live our lives because these things are more caught than taught.  We can go through the exercise but if our lives don’t reflect God’s values then we are just kidding ourselves.  This by no means implies that we have to live perfect lives because that is not possible, we are imperfect human beings and will make mistakes along the way.  The condition and intention of our heart is what matters most and having a heart of gratitude and generosity is evidence that we understand what God has done for each of us by sending Jesus to die so we can have eternal life and live the abundant life while we are here on earth.  This is the most meaningful Heritage we can pass to our children, that they know Christ.  “He gave His only begotten son so that we can have eternal life”. John 3:16, so as we receive this amazing gift we are filled with heartfelt gratitude and desire to give it away to others.  To give our lives and leverage our influence and possessions to build God’s Kingdom.  This is the heart of God and it is a heart of Generosity towards humanity.  It is interesting that as we study families of wealth over millennia, the ones that have sustained legacy over generations are the ones that have been most generous, especially those who are generous towards the things of God.  “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” Proverbs 11:25

God promises us that if we live our lives with God’s values He will bless our descendants up to a thousand generations.  “Know therefore that the Lord God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.” Deuteronomy 7:9  What an amazing and powerful promise of God.  I hope this encourages you toward living on purpose with intentionality to plant seeds for Generational Blessing in your family.  The is the opportunity we have as followers of Christ and Kingdom builders.

Duane