My Children's Children and Beyond

By Joe Keim

July 1, 2022

lLift your head my brother...my sister … Lift your head and eyes above all your worries, frustrations, and failures. Are you able to envision the next generation of children in your mind? Now, look further. Look way out there past your own children. What do you see? Can you envision your children’s children? What about your children’s children’s children? Look further. Can you envision ten generations? 

Why is lifting our heads and looking past ourselves so important? Because how you and I are living life today will have a direct impact on generations to come even long after we are dead and gone. The choices that we make on this day will affect our children, our children’s children, and beyond. 

If money, houses, retirement, sports, ministry, Hollywood, hunting, fishing, and living in sin are all more important than Jesus and His Kingdom, then we should not be surprised when our children choose to follow the same idols that we worship and cling to. We should also not be surprised when our grandchildren and great grandchildren follow in the same footsteps. 

In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus recounted the story of two men. Both men took time to build their own house. One built his house on a rock, and the other built his house on sand. The man who built his house on the rock, undoubtedly worked harder and put in quite a bit more effort. It was important that his foundation was good, solid, and strong. The man who built his house on the sand did not want to put in long days. He by-passed all the sweat, perseverance, and hard work. My guess is that he moved into his house long before the other man did. He may have laughed and made fun of the other man and talked behind his back to his neighbors.  You know how it goes - nothing new under the sun!

But then one day it got cloudy. A mighty storm rose from the west. It began to rain hard. The floods came, the winds blew, and they beat on both houses. When the wind and rain finally died down, and the sun came out, only one house was standing. The other was completely ruined and devastated. I would not be surprised if the man who lost his house was weeping and wishing  that he had followed the man who had built his house on the rock. He probably lost many nights of sleep and felt like giving up. “If only,” he thought, “I would have put more effort into building my house!”

My brother…my sister...Lift your head!  Lift your eyes! Look over all your worries, frustrations, and failures. How important is it that your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren love the Lord your God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind?  How important is it that they love people like God loves people? How important is it that you get rid of your idols, forsake all, and follow the one true and everlasting Lord of all? 

Keep building! Just make sure you are building on a good solid foundation. At the end of your life, only you will give an account for how you built your house. Amen and amen!

 

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