Wisdom’s Legacy

Please make me wise and teach me the difference between right and wrong. Then I will know how to rule your people. If you don’t, there is no way I could rule this great nation of yours.

─ 1 Kings 3:9 CEV

Janet carried a plate of cookies to the island and placed them in front of her two oldest granddaughters. “Gammie, we love to decorate your cookies!” four-year-old Ella cheered.

“Are the cookies still hot, Gammie?” six-year-old Grace inquired.

Janet smiled, thinking about how differently her children were raising her grandchildren. She praised God for the choices and decisions they made for their families. As a young mother, she felt unprepared and ill-equipped to do for her children what her own parents hadn’t done for her. She recognized the power of God at work in her children’s lives now in raising their own children, just as He’d faithfully done for her.

Encouraging our children to rely on God’s wisdom is one of our greatest responsibilities as parents. Solomon’s father, David, encouraged him to seek wisdom when he was young (see 1 Kings 2:1-3, 1 Chronicles 28, 29). It’s very likely his father’s influence is what compelled Solomon to ask God for a heart of wisdom above anything else when God offered to give Solomon whatever He asked for (1 Kings 3:9).

Wisdom, as well as a desire for God’s wisdom, can be passed from generation to generation. If your parents never taught you in this way, God’s wisdom is available to you as His child. You can learn from God’s Word and give your children and grandchildren (natural and spiritual) a legacy of wisdom.

Today’s One Thing

In what ways are you cultivating God’s wisdom in your own life? How are you generating a legacy of God’s wisdom for generations to come? What can you do today that would inspire others to choose God’s wisdom?

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