Finding Your Starting Point
Creating an enduring Christian legacy
Every family’s spiritual legacy begins somewhere.
shout out to Eilis Garvey for the photo
For many young parents, that beginning doesn’t feel clean or simple. They may both look at their growing up years and think, “We didn’t get the best start. Where do I begin?” Older couples may say, “We love the sentiment of creating a spiritual legacy, but it’s too late to begin.”
After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives, and your homes,” (Nehemiah 4:14).
The early chapters of the Book of Nehemiah offers insight.
When Nehemiah heard the walls of Jerusalem were in ruins he was heartbroken. Returning to Jerusalem his inspection confirmed what he had been told. Broken stones, burned gates, and years of neglect. There was so much rubble Jerusalem’s inhabitants had given up.
Physical walls mattered as much to those in Nehemiah’s day as a family’s “spiritual walls” do today. Walls provided a family protection, as well as establishing a family’s dignity and identity. Protection, dignity, and identity are essential to creating an enduring spiritual legacy.
Jerusalem’s walls had been in a ruined, broken-down condition for generations, leaving the people vulnerable, discouraged, and convinced nothing could change. Enter Nehemiah. He believed God wanted the walls repaired. His plan was simple. Each family would be in charge of repairing its section of the wall. Just as each family in Jerusalem repaired the part of the wall in front of their home, each family today begins with what is in front of them.
Rubble doesn’t disqualify you. It simply means you know what brokenness feels like and that makes you more tender and eager toward rebuilding. God begins His best work in places that look impossible. The rubble in your story can be the glimmering part of the testimony in your children’s story.
Finding your starting point means doing an honest assessment of your family’s “wall.”
If there is sadness and disappointment, give yourself permission to grieve. Nehemiah grieved, then he acted.
Clear away the debris in your family’s story. Ask God to break all negative spiritual attachments from your family’s history.
Begin fresh. Repent of your past. Stand accepted through the forgiveness of Jesus.
A wise builder begins at the foundation and works his way up. Maybe you didn’t grow up with prayer around the dinner table or maybe Scripture wasn’t part of your home. If so, begin. If encouragement was rare, encourage. Perhaps church attendance was spotty or non-existent. Decide that your family will attend a worship service each week.
You can’t create a spiritual legacy all at once. But God definitely honors serious beginnings and sincere effort. As you work, never underestimate how quickly God can work. Incredibly, Jerusalem’s walls were completed in just 52 days! If there is a caveat or lesson here, I want to remind you that family spiritual rhythms vary and urge you not to compare your family’s progress to another’s. Just keep taking faithful steps in the direction of the spiritual legacy you are creating.
Perhaps one of these could be your starting point:
praying for your kids by name
blessing your spouse before they leave for work
asking your child a thoughtful question
sharing how you saw Jesus at work today
apologizing quickly and forgiving freely
Do not consider these as a checklist. They’re steps. Most of these you will do many times over. Steps, even small ones, repeated over time are what creates legacy.
The families in Jerusalem didn’t face the same rubble.
Some had collapsed walls. Some had burned gates and broken hinges. Your family’s “section” will have its own unique challenges too.
As the families rebuilt, enemies tried to intimidate them, discourage them, and stop the work entirely.
As with the workers in Nehemiah’s day, God also promises to strengthen your hands. (Nehemiah 2:18) You will need God’s strength.
Trowels, swords, chisels, and spears. The tools of building a spiritual legacy. Credit- StockCake
Creating a spiritual legacy of faithfully following Jesus is countercultural. There are wicked people and spiritual forces that will try to wear you down or make you fearful enough to stop. (Nehemiah 4:1-12) Wisely, Nehemiah stationed watchmen and warriors in vulnerable locations. Guards were set at intervals where each could be seen or immediately notified by a trumpet call. Many of the laborers held a tool in hand and a weapon in the other. All the workers carried a sword or a spear and kept it at the ready even when they went for water. (Nehemiah 4:16-26)
Your starting point is wherever you are today.
Not where you wish you were. Not where someone else is. Not where your parents were. In Nehemiah’s day Jerusalem’s families trusted that God would help them with their section of the wall. Commit your generational legacy to Jesus. Trust Him to help you create it.
Like the families in Nehemiah’s day, your faithful Christ-centered choices and actions become part of God’s larger story of creating eternal spiritual legacy.
Your children won’t remember whether or not you had the perfect plan. They’ll remember that you were there, that you cared, that you prayed, that you blessed, that you listened, that you loved Jesus and loved them. That is how you create an enduring spiritual legacy.
