Any Prosperity for Your Posterity?: Generational Thinking: Your Life Is Not About You

“Mommy, what was grandpa (or grandma) like?” We all long to know the lives of our ancestors because in understanding them we better understand ourselves. We want to know the circumstances and histories that ultimately led to our creation. Since we all spend time inquiring about our ancestors, you would think we would spend even more time thinking about what type of legacy we’ll leave our children’s children when they inevitably will ask their parents about us. However, most of us live for today, not considering the eternal consequences of our decisions. Therefore, will you follow the herd off the cliff? Or will you choose to leave any prosperity for your posterity?


You only have to look at Matthew 1-17 to understand the impact of generational thinking. These verses outline Jesus Christ’s genealogy and Matthew 1:17 sums it up by stating, “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.” Think about it. That’s 42 generations from the time of Abraham to the time of Christ. Forty-two individual yet not independent lifetimes linked together to ultimately form the Christ. Each person’s lifetime in some fashion contributed to the next generation and so on. As a matter of fact, one could argue that the sum of these 42 generations is greater than any one generation (even King David’s) since the sum resulted in Christ.


This begins to give you a realization of the raised stakes of your one lifetime’s contribution when placed in the larger whole of your family line. Since you now are beginning to see the larger picture, the next question becomes what will you contribute? Moses’ generation made a huge contribution. Through their efforts they rewarded their children’s generation the Promised Land although they never saw it themselves (Joshua 5:6). Moses’ generation’s contribution forever changed the course of Israel’s history while providing greater prosperity for their posterity (anything beats being held captive in Egypt).


So what will you contribute? Whether you realize it or not you will contribute something. Since most folks are not conscious of how their lives factor into the lives of their posterity they leave regrettable contributions. Abuse, depression, alcoholism, unfaithfulness, poverty are some of the many unintended inheritances we leave our children. How many alcoholics do you know have a parent who is an alcoholic? How many smokers do you know who have a parent who smokes? How many college graduates do you know who have a parent who graduated? How many poor people do you know who have a poor parent? These are all small examples of the many ways our generational contributions manifest themselves.


It is important for you to start thinking about what kind of legacy you want to leave your posterity today. Your legacy involves wealth, habits, ideas, opportunities, relationships, lifestyle, etc. It’s this total package that will determine whether your children’s children will have any prosperity. So hopefully you now see the importance of everyday generational thinking for the sake of your posterity’s prosperity.