In our family, on my husband’s side, a love for Alabama football has been passed down through four generations. The crazy thing is no one has ever attended the University of Alabama and no one has lived in Alabama. My husband grew up next door to his grandmother. She liked Coach Bear Bryant. My husband and his brother grew up watching Alabama football with their grandmother and became Alabama football fans. His brother has had season tickets to the Alabama home games for years. Our kids grew up going to Alabama football games. Great planning went into what they would do when they were going to a game: when they would meet, where they would eat (Dreamland of course!), how their time in Alabama before the game would be spent, etc. Fast forward several years and our oldest sons are married and each have a child. They are being intentional in passing this love of Alabama football along to their children even at a young age by dressing them in Alabama sports gear, etc. My son is even trying to coach our cute grandson to say ROLL TIDE! (My daughter-in-law and I both grew up in households that are huge Georgia fans. Life gets interesting during football season!)
In a recent baby dedication class for parents at church, I shared this story to reinforce a point about intentionality in creating a spiritual legacy with our kids.
Judges 2:10 says “After them another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works he had done for Israel” (CSB).
In a Priscilla Shirer’s Bible Study, Gideon, she made these key points:
“The Israelites didn’t know the Lord. Maybe their parents were not intentional in teaching them about the Lord. We need to be strategic – They had gotten comfortable in the blessing and did not impress the next generation about the Lord and the blessor.”
“We have to be deliberate – make it our job to teach the next generation.”
“It took just one generation for it to collapse of those who knew God.”
Wow! What an incredible reminder for us as parents and grandparents. If we want our kids to come to know Christ and for Him to be the most important relationship in their lives, we have to be intentional and to let our kids see us living this out and modeling it from what we say, the way we respond to life, our involvement in regularly attending and serving in our church, etc. As parents and grandparents, Christ should be the most important relationship in our lives. At an early age, our kids will observe our lives and see what we treasure and prioritize. Let it not be said that our kids and grandkids are a generation that rise up and do not know the Lord or the works He has done. My prayer for us as parents and grandparents is for us to be intentional and to teach the next generation at home and church to pass along our spiritual legacy.
Maria Brannen 