All of us are in the process of leaving a spiritual legacy for our children. Some parents leave a negative spiritual legacy. One young man said, “My father said he was a Christian, but I never saw any evidence of it. I never saw him read the Bible and never heard him pray. He didn’t go to church. He often cursed, and when he lost his temper, he was anything but a Christian. My poor mother put up with more junk than any woman should have to endure. If my father was a Christian, then I don’t want to be one.”

Sadly, this father left a spiritual legacy, but it was negative. The spiritual legacy we leave depends on how closely our walk matches our talk. If there is a discrepancy between the two, we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us correct it. Today is the day to confess our past failures and turn our lives in a new direction.

Confess your past failures and acknowledge the fact that occasionally your legacy has been less than inspirational. Ask God to help you build a positive legacy for your children.

Take time to reflect on these questions:

What would a negative spiritual legacy look like?

What might cause a person to leave (inadvertently) a negative spiritual legacy?

What steps can you take to make sure that your spiritual legacy is a positive one?

Consider these passages for further study on Spiritual Legacies:

Deuteronomy 6:1-3 These are the commands, decrees, and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ² so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy a long life. ³ Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

Proverbs 1:8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

Ephesians 6:1-2 Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—

Great thoughts of Gary Chapman. One would remember overall if they are a good person leaving a positive legacy for others around them. People remember not what they say, but how they make you feel. How do you want to be remembered? It makes us think about how we present ourselves to others daily and keep stepping up to a higher standard.