A Family Legacy

I really intended to be blogging a lot more on my thoughts as I read through the Old Testament this year... I've had tons of them!  I can't believe all of the things that have jumped out to me... things that I've never noticed before.  Its almost been as if I'm reading this incredible story for the first time, though that's not the case.  I've read these stories before... its just that in the context of reading it straight thru from "cover to cover" I am seeing it unfold as one, grand story in a new and fresh way.  I hope your reading has produced similar results.

One thing that has struck me this week as I've read again the story of Rehoboam and the division of the kingdom in prepping for Sunday's message... is the legacy of Solomon.  Rehoboam was proud, pompous, arrogant and an unwise, inexperienced king... true.  His hasty decision to side with his buddies rather than the wiser elders of Israel, men who had served in his father's administration, led to the alienation of the northern kingdom and their rejection of him as their king.  Subsequently the nation split in two with Rehoboam holding on to only a fraction of the nation he had come to lead.  Yet, it wasn't all his fault.  This was in large part due to the unfaithfulness of his father, Solomon, who had chosen not to walk in HIS father's ways and instead to embrace the pagan cultures around him.  God brought judgment against Solomon and told him that this was going to happen.

I wonder what kind of legacy we are leaving for our children?  Solomon's legacy destroyed a nation.  What will mine produce?  What kind of example am I leaving behind for my boys?  What kind of mess am I going to leave behind for them to clean up?  Will they be able to tell their boys that their grand-dad "walked in the ways of their father, David?" or will they just roll their eyes and say, "Well, you know grand-pa... ?"  I wonder how the decisions I make today, the associations I involve myself with, and the way I  interact with them... will affect their lives tomorrow?  Hm.... something to ponder today.