This summer I had the awesome privilege of baptizing my youngest son, Brandon. This was one of the greatest moments of my life, because now all my sons have accepted Christ and have been baptized. I was so proud of him and so happy that his grandparents were here to share in this moment. I cannot express the joy in my heart, not only have all my sons come to Christ, but I was able to baptize each of them.
Naturally, all this got me to thinking about the legacy that I received from my parents and the legacy I am passing on to my children. When I was just a little boy, my Mother made sure that I knew that I came from a family of ministers and laymen and women and I was expected to take what had been entrusted to me and continue serving God with it. After my brother received Christ I can remember my Mother saying that if the Lord took her home now, she would be alright because all her children were saved. That’s how important our Salvation was to her. I also have that same passion and zeal for the things of God and on that Sunday after Brandon was baptized, I understood exactly what she meant. It is a wonderful thing to know that your children are in the Kingdom of God and you will spend eternity with them.
I want to remind all who read this, whether you realize it or not, you are leaving a legacy to your children. Sometimes, we may emphasize the worldly aspects of life such as education, employment, finances, etc. too much and we forget to stress the spiritual things. We must model a healthy spiritual life for our children in order to pass on the things of God to them. In Matthew 16:26 Christ asks, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” It is not enough to only teach this, but we, as parents must model this lifestyle to our children. In Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, Moses instructed the people of God to do this, just before crossing over into the promised land.
As you read Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, here are some points to ponder:
- Deuteronomy 6: 1-3. The people of God must fear the Lord their God, their sons and their son’s sons by keeping all his statutes and commandments all the days of their life. The word of God is not just for you but for your children and your children’s children. We are expected to have a relationship with our child that models the Christian life and to instruct our children in the things of God.
- Deuteronomy 6: 4-19. The people of God should have the words of God on their heart and we are to teach them diligently to our children. According to scripture, we are to speak the word of God and keep his statutes and commandments when we sit in our houses, when we walk by the way, when we lie down and when we rise. This passage instructs us to keep a constant dialogue concerning the laws of God with our children in order to teach them and to pass down what God has taught us.
- Deuteronomy 6: 20-25. In time, our children will come to us for the meaning of these testimonies, statutes and rules that the Lord our God has commanded us. We are to show them from the word of God why we do what we do and show them how He delivered His people from slavery and made them a nation in order to fulfill the covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are to teach our children that even when God brought his people to a land flowing with milk and honey, they still did not heed His words so, God sent his Son Jesus Christ to redeem man once and for all. We are to tell them that all who believe in Jesus Christ are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29) and now we do not live for ourselves but for the one who died for us that is Jesus Christ.
