SEPTEMBER 2015 - Leaving a Legacy

This past week, I had the great honor of representing Vista Grande at the funeral of Pastor Jay’s father. The funeral was a wonderful celebration of the life of his dad. I enjoyed the stories that were shared, and they gave me a deeper look into who Pastor Jay is as a person. Pastor Jay was greatly shaped and molded by the Godly legacy and influence of his father.

I am grateful that my own parents are still alive and faithfully serving Christ and His church. My parents have continuously modeled for me what it looks like to love Jesus, to live for Him, and to faithfully serve His church. God used my parents to instill within me a great love and passion for the church.

We will all leave something behind for our family and children. The question is, will we leave behind something that is of eternal significance? At this stage of life, my parents hope to leave behind an inheritance for my sister and I and the five grandchildren. For me, I am beyond grateful they raised me in a family where Christ is the center of everything and actively serving the body of Christ has never been an option. My prayer is that this legacy is now being passed on to my own children and the generations that follow.

The Shema is a central prayer and declaration of faith for the Jewish people. Many Jewish people still recite this twice a day. The first part of the Shema is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-6, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”


As parents, we often want to help guide our children to success on the field, the court, in the arts, in academics, in a future career, and help lead them to a life of financial stability, but that should not be our primary focus. Through his Word, God has called us seek first HIS Kingdom. While we cannot earn our children eternal life through our own faith, this is a decision they must make, this passage in Deuteronomy commands us to live out our faith on a daily basis and to raise our children in a home that is focused on the Kingdom of God. God uses Christian parents to help shape and form our children and to influence them to live for Christ. So how can we leave a legacy that has an eternal impact?

1. Be a Christ-like example
It is not enough just to bring your family to church every once in a while or even once or twice a week. Your children need to see you living out your faith in Christ in every circumstance in life. Be a model of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. In your parenting style, model grace and forgiveness but provide boundaries and consistency. Do your children see that the Word of God, prayer, service, ministry, loving others, sharing your faith, discipleship, and living in community with other believers is important in your own life? 

2. Choose your priorities carefully
If a relationship with Jesus and doing life together with the body of Christ isn’t important to your family now, don’t expect that the light switch will finally flip on once your children graduate high school and college. Our culture keeps increasing the busyness of life, and God and church are often the first thing that many push to the edge or out of the picture completely. So many things have become idols in our family and we don’t even realize it! 

3. Be intentional with your time
This passage in Deuteronomy shows us we need to diligently teach the things of God to our children. Use every moment as a teaching moment to point your children to the Word of God and to Jesus. I have at times been guilty of living a life of passivity and just dealing with life as it comes to me. We waste way too much time when we live with this attitude and do not have an intentional plan to have a Godly impact in the lives of others. Our children grow up fast and our greatest time of influence in their life will quickly slip by if we are not intentional with our time.

4. Pray
While this is last on the list, this needs to be the starting point. I can already tell you, you will fail as a parent in constantly living this out. The beautiful thing is your failures are an awesome opportunity to humbly confess your shortcomings to your children and to point them to the grace, love, and forgiveness that Jesus so freely gives us. Pray earnestly and pray daily that God will shape and mold you into His image. Pray that God will work powerfully in the lives of your children. Pray for wisdom to raise your children in a way that brings honor and glory to God. Pray that God will reveal those things that you have allowed to become idols in your family. Pray for boldness and strength to be intentional with your time. 

You will leave a legacy behind. I am grateful for the legacy of faithful followers of Christ such as Pastor Jay’s dad, my own parents, and countless others who make much of Jesus as they follow Him in life. My life has been forever changed because of the influence of my parents. Parents, our influence is huge! What kind of legacy do you desire to leave behind?