Godly Inheritance

I have apple trees. But in the fall, when the apples are over-ripe, they fall to the ground. Strange, but they always fall right under the tree where they were grown. Children are like that!

There are things in life that seldom come into focus, except over time. I can recall that, both in myself, and later in my own son, when as teenagers, we knew it all. In our teens we thought that we knew better than our parents. We thought our own actions and thoughts were ours alone, and no one else’s business. We felt close to invincible. We were teenagers.

Often, as most parents eventually come to understand, they are the least likely to be listened to when it comes to choices between right and wrong. All parents have been “old-fashioned” since the dawn of creation. This also comes to pass. And pass it does. Life’s hard experiences often drive people back toward the values they’d heard as younger people.

I’m expect Methuselah who lived over 900 years, when he was merely 200 years old, thought his parents were old-fashioned. It seems like an inevitability, that each succeeding generation demands liberties and change from what they’ve been harnessed into since childhood. Youth is adventuresome, curious, exploratory, inquisitive and . . . unfortunately, gullible.

I know what I’m talking about! I was there, just fifty years ago. I was a preacher’s kid. I was as dumb as a post in some things. But I only found that out later. Like I said, there are things in life that seldom come into focus, except over time. But they do come into focus.

So, parents, don’t despair. If you brought your children up right, with a godly and biblical input, they’ll probably turn out pretty well. When values are discussed, taught and demonstrated, the result are pretty certain. But the key to such a result is in the consistent, daily and godly demonstration of what you say you believe. Consistency, thou art a rare jewel !!

In Deuteronomy 6:6-7 we read:

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

That sounds like consistency to me!

I will never cease to thank God for a godly inheritance. My parents were consistent in what they said they believed, and in the demonstration of what they believed. When they warned that there would be a certain result if I stepped out of line, that result came with finality and accuracy when I blew it.

Unfortunately, not every family was as sound, firm and biblical as mine. We were five brothers and sisters. We always behaved. Sometimes badly. The differences were noticed and attended to. I think the five of us turned out not too badly, in spite of some of the foolishness we indulged in when we were younger.

Parents could take to heart what Paul wrote to the church, in Philippians 3:17

“Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.”

Example is much more powerful than the most forceful of words. But there can be bad examples too. We read os some in 2 Peter 2:4-6:

“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly.”

Apples don’t usually fall far from the trees on which they grow. And yes, I know, there always seems to be a bad apple in every bushel - except where the quality control is in place!