What is the greatest legacy you could pass on to your children?

Money? Property? Investments? Family name? Social or business connections?

Nope. None of these items is guaranteed to bless your children. In fact, all of them could become a snare or a stumbling block if your children don’t know how to handle them wisely.

Your greatest legacy is the wisdom you have accumulated over the course of your life. Especially your wisdom on how to love God, discipline yourself, and serve others.

Last week I had the privilege of sharing this kind of wisdom as I delivered a series of messages at a conference of 7,000 home schooling parents and teens in North Carolina. During the commencement ceremony, I gave the graduates a list of 120 wisdom principles that Corlette and I wrote down for our children as our legacy to them.

I’m sharing this list with you (Our Legacy-Things We Hope You’ve Learned) in the hope that it will encourage you to write a list of your own insights to pass on to your children or grandchildren someday … perhaps as a birthday or Christmas gift.

Even if they don’t appreciate and embrace all of your values today, there will come a time when they will see them through different eyes—eyes that have been opened by age, experience, and the Holy Spirt—and thank God that you took the time to preserve and pass on to them your greatest legacy … your personal compilation of relational wisdom.

“For wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her” (Prov. 8:11).

– Ken Sande

Reflection Questions:

• What are some of the wisest principles your parents, grandparents, or other godly people passed down to you? Have you passed them on to your children?
• Did you value all of your parents’ wisdom when you were young? At what age did you begin to truly appreciate it?
• Imagine that you are on your death bed and have only enough time to pass three wisdom principles on to your children. What would they be?
• Why wait until time runs short? Start writing them down today. Your children will one day praise you for doing so.

Permission to distribute: Please feel free to download, print, or electronically share this message in its entirety for non-commercial purposes with as many people as you like. If you wish to adapt the questions to better suit your group, please include a parenthetical note (Questions adapted with permission of RW360) and send a copy to mail@rw360.org.

© 2013 Ken Sande

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