"Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart." - Psalm 119:111
A heritage like an inheritance, but bigger than money or property. An inheritance consists of the blessing of material goods that you will pass on to the next generation. Your heritage is the intangible blessing handed down from one generation to another.
Many of us work hard to leave an inheritance to our children. We might hire a lawyer and make out a will or set up a trust to ensure that what we have worked so hard to save up goes to our children. Others of us might not have much in the way of material wealth to leave the next generation. We will all pass along a heritage to our children. Some of this is done unconsciously; our children will absorb some things from us without our even realizing it. We instill in them traditions, a taste in furniture, a certain way of doing things, music, a love for books or poetry. It might be a set of values that we received from our parents or built up in the course of our own life and now we want to be sure to pass it along to our children and grandchildren. Many of us work hard to pass along a heritage to our children. Ultimately what we will give them are the things that we love the most. If our children grow up seeing in us a deep love of country living, or of opera music, or of freedom, that will be the heritage that we pass along. If they grow up seeing in us a love of the Word of God, that will be our heritage. If God’s testimonies are the joy of our heart, that’s what we will pass along to our children and grandchildren. The next generation will be raised up with a love for hearing and sharing these blessings with each other, developed in their hearts. Lord, give me a heart for passing along a good and godly heritage to the next generation of Your children. Fill me with a passion for what’s good and right and holy. Let them see in me that your testimonies are the joy of my heart. Amen! Pastor Dan Giles