Pass it Down

As we just celebrated Mother’s Day, my prayer for you sweet Mama is that you felt (and continue to feel) as loved, as cherished and as treasured as you deserve! I pray that you are beginning to see some of the “fruit” of your labor as you’ve raised babies, children, teenagers, young adults, and now, perhaps, even grandchildren.

I hope that you know that you have the most important job in the entire world, though it is the least paying job on the planet! :)

But I also hope you know that you really never know if you were a great mother or not until your children are raised with families of their own. At that time, you are afforded a beautiful opportunity to see how much of a godly influence you have had on your children as they begin to raise children of their own, teaching them the godly values that you instilled in their parents so many years ago.

I think as mothers we so often forget how long-lasting and even eternal our influence is on our children. In the mundane tasks of raising our children, we often lose sight of how powerful and how important our words, our actions, our faith, and our love are to them.

The Apostle Paul recognized with great description just how influential we as mothers and grandmothers are to the generation we are raising. He was writing a letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, when he penned these words:

“I am filled with joy as I think of your strong faith that was passed down through your family line. It began with your grandmother Lois, who passed it on to your dear mother Eunice. And it’s clear that you too are following the footsteps of their godly example.” (II Timothy 1: 5 TPT)

While we may not have control over what family we were raised in, or the circumstances that surrounded our upbringing, we have absolute control over WHAT WE PASS DOWN TO OUR CHILDREN AND OUR GRANDCHILDREN! Whether it’s our natural children or our spiritual children, God has gifted women with the awesome power of influence!  

We each have a choice as to what we will pass down.

Will it be our faith? Our strength? Our wisdom? Our loyalty? Our deep, deep love and commitment to God?

Clearly, Timothy’s mother and grandmother passed down these things to him, and because of their influence, he walked out his faith in a beautiful, powerful way that we are still reading about and learning from thousands of years later!

But if we are not intentional in what we are passing down, we will perhaps pass down things that we won’t be proud to see in the future generation that is coming behind us.

Faith cannot accidentally be passed down… it must be intentional.

Wisdom cannot accidentally be passed down… it must be intentional.

So it is with love, with forgiveness, with integrity, with joy, with perseverance, with kindness, with joy, with grace…and the list goes on and on. WE MUST BE INTENTIONAL!

I promise you, Timothy’s mother and grandmother didn’t just hope that Timothy would turn out to be a man of God, though I am sure that there were many prayers prayed on Timothy’s behalf. It wasn’t just those prayers that made him out to be the man that we read of in the Bible.  Grandmother Lois and Mama Eunice were intentional in what they passed down to their grandson and son! And because of their intentionality, we read of this family that was full of faith and full of God!

We do not know the backstory of Lois or of Eunice. The Bible doesn’t tell us their background, their struggles, or any of the troubles they may have walked through in their lives. But the Bible does tell us that they took GREAT responsibility in what they passed down and how they raised young Timothy, and we are the beneficiaries of these women’s hard work and dedication to the younger generation.

As we celebrate this Mother’s Day, I ask you the question: “What are you intentionally passing down to your children and grandchildren?”

Regardless of the ages of your children/grandchildren and regardless of how intentional you may have been or not, make a decision today that from this point forward, you will PASS DOWN with great INTENT the ways, the heart and the love of God to a generation that needs it so badly!

History is resting on what we chose to pass down and to whom we pass it down to.

Mothers, we have a great responsibility to this generation! Let’s not take our God-given influence for granted. Let’s raise up a generation who will declare the goodness and the greatness of our Mighty God!

And who knows? Maybe future generations will be telling their children and grandchildren of YOUR great faith and love for God and how because of your obedience, their generation will be changed forever!

Let’s commit to being mothers who are intentional in what we are passing down to future generations!