Thinking About Legacy

Today in home church we covered the story of Ruth.  The following Scripture is in my head and I'm thinking and thinking and thinking about it.  "Where you go I will go, where you stay I will stay, your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." Ruth 1:16

What does it say about our legacy?  Ruth says this to her mother-in-law, Naomi, when Naomi is returning to her homeland of Judah.  Naomi's sons have died and her two daughters-in-law have followed her half-way home.  She bids them goodbye, but Ruth insists she is going with her and says:

"Where you go I will go, where you stay I will stay, your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." Ruth 1:16

Naomi concedes and takes Ruth with her back to Judah.  Once there, Ruth works with the gleaners to gather enough grain for their sustenance.  Little does she know, but she is gleaning from a field owned by Boaz, who is a relative of Naomi.  Eventually, Boaz and Ruth marry and Ruth bears Obed.  Obed matures, marries, and fathers Jesse.  Jesse becomes the father of David.

David, if you will remember, is the David of "David and Goliath" fame.  He also grows up to become King of Israel.  He pens most of the Psalms.  God calls David a "man after his own heart."  David is the one who taught me, through the Psalms, that there is nothing I can say or do or feel that will make God stop loving me.  David taught me that God is bigger than anything I can throw at Him.  David taught me what it looks like to truly trust God.  David is no joke!  And, through David's line comes ... do you remember?  Jesus.

Legacy.

Ruth embraced Naomi's God and pledged herself to live as a Hebrew.  Through her faithfulness she was part of the blessing to come.  Our faith, our devotion to the Lord affects our children.  Our prayers touch the generations to come.

My faithfulness, my worship life, my prayer life, my devotion to God have a direct effect on my children, their children, and their children and beyond.  I have no idea who my great-great grandchildren will be and what plan the Lord has for them.

What am I doing that ensures God's blessings on my children?  Is it just putting Scripture around the house where the kids can see it?  Is it just going to church (or home churching)?  Are they hearing me when I talk to them about God?  Or is overhearing me talk to my girlfriends about God helping, too?  Am I doing enough to train up my children in the way they shall go so when they grow old they will not stray from it?

So again, as I tend to do in my mothering, I'm looking at our lives.  I'm judging what we're doing and weighing the consequences.  What's good, what needs tweaking, what's in need of excising?  Above all, though, I wonder... and I worry and try to remember to give my worry to God... are the tracks I'm laying in my children's hearts be what they will follow?  Will they accept this legacy of faith?  And am I doing enough?

What is my legacy?

~ G