Handing Down a Heritage of Faith is Essential & Can be Fun, too!

Please share this post with the grandparents & parents in your church.

I've been writing for the past week and a half about handing down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren. As I said yesterday; "We so easily become distracted by the things in this world. We lose focus of what is truly most important and think things like earning more money, taking bigger and better vacations owning a bigger and newer home, driving new cars, etc. are important when in truth, none of these things matter. Not really. If we end up with all these things, but fail to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren, will we say; 'Oh well. I had a great car, house and big back account.'? No. Nothing, please allow me to repeat, NOTHING is more important than handing down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren. If we are serious about handing down a heritage of faith, we have to stay focused upon what is really important, so we do not become distracted by this world." 

How Do We Hand Down a Heritage of Faith? Serve God & Do Not be Distracted by the World!

Please share with the parents and grandparents in your church.

I have been writing for the past few days about how we are part of God's plan to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren; and we need to focus upon doing so. Today as I finish looking at Deuteronomy 6, I want to think about what it means when it tells us to - 

Fear the Lord  your God, serve him only.

Yesterday I talked about how the people of Israel had trouble with remembering all the things God did for them; how He saved them, led them and provided for them. Over and over they forgot. I said; "We tend to do the same. We think the things we have are because of what we have done instead of remembering all we have are blessings from the hand of God. We forget God's goodness, but He says to be careful we do not forget. He wants us to remember and we need to remember. It is an important part of handing down a heritage of faith, because if we do not remember God and His many blessings, our grandchildren are unlikely to do so. When this happens, we slip into sin." 

We so easily become distracted by the things in this world. We lose focus of what is truly most important and think things like earning more money, taking bigger and better vacations, owning a bigger and newer home, driving new cars, etc. are important, when in truth, none of these things matter. Not really. If we end up with all these things, but fail to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren will we say, "Oh well. I had a great car, house and big bank account!"? No. Nothing, please allow me to repeat, NOTHING is more important than handing down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren.

If we are serious about handing down a heritage of faith, we have to stay focused on what is really important; so we do not become distracted by this world. We need to remember Who we serve. We are able to do this in the following ways . . .

How Do We Hand Down a Heritage of Faith? Pay Attention & Remember Our Blessings are from God!

Please share this post with the parents and grandparents in your church.

We have been looking at how we are part of God's plan to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren, and we need to focus on doing so. Today I want to think about what it means when Deuteronomy 6 tells us to - 

• Be careful you do not forget the Lord.

Apparently the people of Israel had trouble with remembering all the things God did for them; how He saved them, led them and provided for them. Over and over they forgot. We tend to do the same. We think the things we have are because of our own efforts instead of remembering all we have are blessings from the hand of God. We forget God's goodness, but He says to be careful we do not forget. He wants us to remember and we need to remember. It is an important part of handing down a heritage of faith, because if we do not remember God and His many blessings, our grandchildren  are unlikely to do so. When this happens, we slip into sin. 

Psalms 78 and Judges 2 tell us how this happened with God's people over and over. They received blessings from God, parents and grandparents thanked God. Then, they forgot to tell their children and grandchildren and they accepted the culture of the nations around them, slipped away from God and into sin. Bad things happened, they turned back to God, thanked Him for His blessings, then forgot, didn't tell their children and grandchildren and it all happened over and over again.

If we are serious about handing down a heritage of faith, we have to remember our blessings come from God and teach this to our children and grandchildren, so they are able to do the same. We may do this in the following ways . . . 

How Do We Hand Down a Heritage of Faith? God's Word on our Hearts

Please share the following post with the parents and grandparents in your ministry.

We have been looking at how we are part of God's plan to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren, and we need to focus on doing so. Today I want to think about what it means when Deuteronomy 6 tells us to - 

• Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

Bible times people had little boxes with Scripture inside - they wore these on their foreheads and wrists and put them as a sign on their doors. A very literal following of these verses; which certainly we are able to to today as well if we put Scripture in our homes, on our walls or eve wear Scripture jewelry. However; I think this is about really having God's words in our hearts and directing our lives. God's Word has to be more than just something which which we decorate or wear; it needs to be on our hearts and lived in our lives and we are able to do this in the following ways . . ,

How Do We Hand Down a Heritage of Faith? Talk about It!

Please share this post with the parents and grandparents in your church.

We know our "job" is not finished just because our children are grown. This is what Deuteronomy 6 is talking about when it says we are to; "talk about God and His Word in our day-in-day-out lives". We need to remember we are part of God's plan to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren.

Deuteronomy is not talking about speaking just the occasional word to our grandchildren about going to church or praying, but a living of our lives in a way which reflects how important God's Word is, because we live it every day. Deuteronomy 6 says to -

How Do We Hand Down a Heritage of Faith? Impress God's Word Upon Our Grandchildren!

Please share this with the parents/grandparents in your ministry to help them know how to hand down the faith to the children they love.

I have been writing about how our "job" is not finished just because our children are grown. If we have grandchildren we still have a very important job to do. We are part of what Deuteronomy 6 is talking about. We are part of God's plan to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren.

I looked at the first step in doing this; being people of the Word who have God's words, "upon our heart". You will find what I had to say about this at the following link.

Today I want to look at the next step . . .

How Do We Hand Down a Heritage of Faith? We Must Be People of the Word!

Please pass this post to the parents and grandparents in your ministry to help them learn how to hand down a heritage of faith to the children they love.

As I have been saying, "If we have grandchildren, we still have a very important job. We are a big part of what Deuteronomy 6 is talking about. We are part of God's plan to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren." Happily, Deuteronomy 6 tells us how we are able to do exactly this. It begins with . . . 

How Do We Hand Down a Heritage of Faith? Consider the Following . . .

This is the second of a series of posts about how important it is for parents and grandparents to hand down the faith to the children they love. Please share with the parents and grandparents in your ministry.

Yesterday I wrote about how our job is not "finished" just because our children are grown. If we have grandchildren there is still a very important "job" for us to do. We are part of what Deuteronomy 6 is talking about; we are part of God's plan to hand down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren.

So, how do we do this?

Handing Down a Heritage of Faith - It Matters

For the coming week and a half, on my other blog - Grandmas with Heart, I'm posting about how it is the parent's and grandparent's "job" to hand down the faith. Please share these posts with the parents and grandparents in your ministry.

Several years ago Larry Fowler wrote a book, The Question Nobody Asks about Our Children, which took a look at how often children are at church. He said there are 168 hours in a week and research shows typically children are at church for one to three of these hours. If children only attend church every other week - as so many do, they are only there for one to three hours of 336 hours. 

The Pew Research Center's Study on Religion in America, backs this up; their study shows, "The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the religious landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic groups. While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages." 

It is clear we are not able to rely on the one to three hours out of 168 to 336 hours our grandchildren/children are in our churches to hand down our faith. We have to become serious about focusing on the other 165-167/333-335 hours which provide opportunities to impact children. This means we have to focus on handing down a heritage of faith to our grandchildren/children and are not able to just rely on the church with the mind-set, "It's their 'job'."

Set Your Clocks Ahead and Hand Down the Faith

Just a reminder . . . this Sunday, March 10, 2019, at 2am (or if you are like us, before we go to bed on Saturday night) we get to set our clocks forward one hour. While we "lose" an hour of sleep, we gain more daylight time. Consider some of the following ways we might encourage the grandparents and parents of the children in our ministry to use this additional daylight time to hand down the faith . . .