One morning this week, I awoke and the first thought in my mind was a statement I had heard many years ago from a minister. The statement was, “Don’t leave battles for your children to fight.”
A couple hours later, I came across a short article about Kingdom thinking. I believe it went right along with not leaving battles for your children to overcome. If we overcome them now, in our family at least, we are impacting not only our children, but generations to come.
Some of the things we can overcome are sickness, disease, lack, poverty, divorce, the list goes on and on. It doesn’t mean our children will never battle those things, but it does mean they will know they can have victory in those areas. It is giving our children and grandchildren what they need to succeed. At least that is how I look at it.
I have a friend who used to always say, “Give people everything they need to succeed and then let them succeed.” That’s what I desire to do for my children and grandchildren.
Kingdom thinking is different from world thinking. For most people they are mostly concerned with what is right in from of them. The following week, this months income, or what is coming in the near future. Kingdom thinking is a different perspective. Kingdom living looks beyond the present and asks how they can impact the next generation.
When we operate in this way of thinking, we move from quick fixes to searching for solutions that bring lasting impacts. We think not only about the fruit we will see in our lifetime but also the fruit that will be seen in the next few generations. It’s not only about what we can build, but what will have lasting fruit.
We see this type of thinking in the life of King David.
In the book of 1 Chronicles, we find it is the desire of King Davids heart to build a temple for God. However, that desire is not fulfilled. Instead, God tells King David that Solomon, his son, would build the temple for God.
David could have become bitter and decided Solomon could fend for himself since God would not allow the temple to be built in his time – but he didn’t.
David spent the last years of his life setting his son up for success. He prepared resources and plans. He even prepared the people for what was to come. He did everything in his power to make sure God’s plan was followed through in the next generation, even though it was his desire to complete it in his lifetime. King David was an example of a great Kingdom thinker. He led with generations in mind.
It’s entirely up to us whether we choose to have a worldly mindset where it is all about us or a Kingdom mindset where we think about generations who will follow us. I desire to be like King David and leave a legacy for my children and grandchildren. A spiritual legacy. I pray my ceiling becomes their floor and they are able to accomplish and see more than I ever dreamed possible in God.
Proverbs 13:22 encourages us to leave a good inheritance to our children. Let’s leave a good spiritual inheritance to those who come behind us. That’s my hope, how about you?
