“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NIV).
Passing our faith down to our kids is a pretty big deal to God. God isn’t just a one-generation kind of God. God is multi-generational and that means He wants to be involved with your kids, your grandkids, your great grandkids, and on down the line. His desire is to have a godly seed on this earth who will love Him and keep His commandments and that He can bless.
In Psalm 78:4-7, God made a law in Israel that the fathers were to teach their children and the generations that came after them all the laws of God and the wonderful works of God. He wanted fathers to pass down the stories of how God delivered them from slavery, how their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out for the 40 years they spent hiking through the desert, how He defeated all their enemies, how He blessed them with abundance, and gave them a Promised Land they could call their own. God wanted the future generations to continually hope and trust in Him. He didn’t want them to forget about His ways, His works, and His wonders. He wanted to be their God so that He could provide for them, bless them, and protect them from generation to generation.
Take Away:
Dads, the most important responsibility we have as fathers and leaders in our homes is to pass our faith in God down to our children. A godly legacy is the most important thing we can leave them, and it’s something we must be intentional about doing. If we want our kids to be successful and victorious in this life, it starts with us teaching and training them to love and respect God, His Word, and His ways.
