Are You Focused on Your Legend or His Legacy?

Dr. Chuck Stecker

Within moments after her birth in a Denver hospital on March 3, 1998, I held in my arms my first grandchild. To say that there was something supernatural about that moment would understate the reality. 

It’s been said that a child of your child is twice  your child, and now I understand why. In the weeks preceding and the days following the birth of Eliana Blair Cassel, God gave me incredible clarity about what’s important to pass on through the generations. I was particularly struck by Psalm 78:5–7:

"He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands."

As I read those verses, it was as if neon lights began blinking and flashing, and bells and whistles went off. Everything in my being seemed to cry out, “This is what it means to leave a godly legacy!” I declared Psalm 78:5–7 to be my “legacy verses” that moment and determined I would teach about them whenever I had the opportunity.

Notice the number of generations mentioned here in just three verses. The process begins with the law given to Israel (Jacob) through Moses (generation one); Israel would teach their children (generation two), and those children would then teach the next generation—”the children yet to be born” (generation three), who would in turn teach their children (generation four).

Notice also that God spoke three things to be taught through the generations—to trust, remember, and obey the living God. I realized that as much as dads want to control the destiny of their children (I have jokingly said on many occasions that my grandchildren will live in Denver, and I don’t care where their parents live), I began to understand in that final verse exactly what comprises the legacy of Almighty God in our lives, our children’s lives, and our children’s children’s lives.

Now God has blessed Billie and I with four amazing grandchildren. After Ellie, now a high school freshman, came Hannah - followed by Makayla and our first grandson, Liam.

Sunday is Grandparents' Day of Prayer. In addition to praying for our four grandchildren, Billie and I will be praying for any other grandchildren God may entrust to us and for our grandchildren's children as well.

In other words, "Even children yet to be born." Now, that is worth praying for.

It is not too late to join Grandparents around the world praying for our grandchildren. Check out Grandparents' Day of Prayer

 (Excerpted from Men of Honor Women of Virtue, Seismic Publishing Group, 2010, p.179