2019, 3rd Quarter
Generational giving is how we give, or pass on, our faith and our values from G1 ourselves, to G2 our children, G3 our grandchildren and to G4 our great-grandchildren. Giving these gifts is one of our most important responsibilities as followers of Jesus Christ.
Generational Giving
Personal experience
During my teenage years whenever I was leaving the house my mother would call out after me with a gift, “Remember you are a Carlson.” This gift, along with a whole lot of my parents’ prayers on my behalf is what brought me through my transitional teen years with relatively few scars. My mother’s gift was a reminder of the family values my parents were seeking to pass on to me.
Original Plan
When Adam & Eve chose to eat the fruit everything changed, and until Jesus returns to restore all things to His original intent, all humans must give up everything we possess, including our faith and values, at the end of our lives on earth. In this temporal world our time is limited, and to pass on the gifts of faith and values learned from our life experiences to G2, G3 and G4 there must be a plan in place.
Passed-on faith
One night God instructed Abraham to take his promised son Isaac to the mountains and offer him as a burnt offering. This was a test of faith that would seem to be impossible for a father and his son to obey. All the experiences that taught Abraham to have faith in God were now tested to the extreme. Issac was also tested since he was a young man and could have easily run away from his hundred-year-old father. Abraham’s experiences had taught him the lessons of faith, and now at a very young age it was Isaac’s turn to test the faith passed on to him from his parents.
Isaac’s trust in God was put to the ultimate test on top of the mountain. Isaac willingly allowed himself to be bound and placed on the altar of sacrifice. When God stopped Abraham’s knife from killing his promised son Isaac, He provided a substitute ram for the sacrifice, honoring the faith of both father and son in the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Parent Primarily responsible
We do not know exactly what Abraham and Sarah did to transfer their faith and values to their son Isaac. What we do know is that Isaac seemed to be very comfortable going with Abraham on this challenging journey of faith to worship God. Isaac may have grown up shadowing his father as Abraham went about his daily occupation of operating his very large agricultural business. Life is like school and learning takes place all the time. Moses states this in Deuteronomy;
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” Deuteronomy 11:18-21 NIV
Contrary to what contemporary society believes and seeks to promulgate, parents are primarily the ones responsible for guiding their children’s understanding of faith and values. It is certainly true that children will grow up and think for themselves, but during the important early formative years of life parents can deliberately pass on their wisdom and life experiences to their children
Faith and Values must be Passed on Today
“A good life gets passed on to the grandchildren” Proverbs 13:22 MSG. Giving of our faith and values is the generational giving that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of all who receive it. First to our children (G2), who then pass their faith and values on to their children (G3) and on through the generations (G4…).
How do we pass-on faith and values to our children? It certainly works best when you have a deliberate plan.
A Gift Plan for Your Family
Each family will have their own approach to passing on their faith and values to their children. A valuable ingredient to passing on faith and values is making scripture a focal point of our family life. Applying the teachings of scripture to our everyday life experiences will make the Bible come alive, be relevant, and practical in the early lives of our children. Children will see God is alive and is a God who hears, sees, and acts. Life experiences will give evidence to our children that God loves them. A worldview that is based on scripture will continue to guide their lives as the children grow.
All families have values that are uniquely important to them, and these values are not the same for every family.
In my family, having our personal finances align with God’s will, as revealed in scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy, and having our finances in good planned order is valued since we are businesspeople. Other families may value music, food, or beauty as a more important value. There are hundreds of values that are good, if kept within God’s will, and your family can find a specific group of values to adopt as the core of your value system.
These important gifts of faith and values are more important than the gift of possessions. Faith and values prepare our children to become faithful stewards of possessions.
To be continued next quarter