One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. Psalm 145:4
This little verse carries lots of meaning for me. See, my dad grew up in the foster care system. His childhood was a pretty huge struggle. His parents didn’t provide for him the safety and care that every child should get. One year he found himself at a Christian camp where he heard the speaker talking about the Gospel. The missionary told the kids that God could be the Father that they needed. As you can imagine, that touched my father’s heart at a deeper level than many kids who did have caring parents. He gave his life to this loving Father that day but that isn’t all he did. See, the beauty of my dad’s conversion story is that he made two commitments that day. He committed his life to Jesus, and he also committed to stopping the generational cycle of bad family dynamics that he had inherited.
That commitment has resulted in all my siblings following Jesus along with a flock of grandchildren who love and respect my dad. We are far from a perfect family, but dad’s investment in his own faith has led to a generational harvest of Jesus in the lives of his kids and grandkids. It’s a beautiful thing that I am forever grateful for.
See, investing in people, specifically in seeing people grow in Jesus, is a worthwhile investment. Where are you giving your time, energy, money, and heart? Will you be glad that you gave those things the attention you gave them? How can you make a deposit in the kingdom of God in the life of someone this week? It could be a gift, an encouraging text, or an apology that is long overdue. Who knows, it might have a generational effect.
by Aaron Bjorklund
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