Proverbs 13:22: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, / But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.”

June 17th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Brand new babies (both newborn humans and new-born believers) require close, constant care and protection. But as they mature, healthy parents are willing to loosen their grip, allowing limited movement. Then little-by-little, step-by-step, year-after-year, as the child continues to mature and to display more responsibility, the healthy parent continues to loosen their grip. It’s much like a new driver learning to drive on the freeway. First they learn to go slowly down the on-ramp and enter the flow of traffic, then speed up into the slow lane, and then, after more experience, into the faster lanes. The problem is most kids want to jump off the overpass into the fast lane of life and skip all the other steps. When we find that we have let out the leash too fast and they get into trouble, we must be willing to pull them back down to a slower speed for a time.

Eventually there comes a time in every parent’s life, when our jobs are complete and we must let go of our children completely and entrust them into God’s care. That can be more difficult for a godly parent than the one who didn’t invest much time or energy into the equipping process. Said another way, in our experience, we have found that good parents have difficulty letting go, while neglectful parents have already checked out and have no problem walking away entirely. The same can be said about godly grandparents who have invested in helping to raise godly grandchildren.

Even as parents, grandparents, and mentors, let go, they pass on an inheritance to their children and their children’s children. Certainly this can include a financial inheritance, but the main inheritance godly people leave their children, both biological and spiritual, is an understanding of their personal, intimate relationship with God. They live out before their children what it means to follow God faithfully. Leaving behind such a godly legacy is a long and difficult process that lasts our entire lives.

“LORD, help us to stay invested in our offspring’s lives, our spiritual children as well as our natural children and grandchildren, in Jesus’ name.”