I often start our Family Legacy Workshop with a question:

What’s the purpose for family? 

In response to the question, usually there’s a pause.  Sometimes people remark, “That’s a good question.”  But inevitably, they get rolling with comments like fun, companionship, community, support, love, care, teaching values, and showing God’s glory, mentally, spiritually and physically…

These are all good responses.  But truly, pause and consider what is God’s purpose for family?

When we stop and look at the scriptures, they tell us something profound:

1. Family is the first human institution God established—even before government, business, the arts.  The family was founded at the creation of the world!
2. God has a generational view of family.  The promises to Abraham were generational promises.  God saw from Abraham to Jesus and to the end of the age.
3. The goal of the family was to pass on the values taught in scripture from one generation to the next.  Psalm 78:5-7 literally lays out the generation adage:  one generation shall tell the next.
4. To pass on values would take a lot of repetition.  Deuteronomy 6:6-7 suggests that we need to be talking about our values in the morning, at night and as we are going along—pretty much all of the time!

Think about it.  If a family fulfilled its mission, and successfully communicated the values of scripture from one generation to the next, then our world would be a more beautiful and more creative place.

It’s the simplest strategic plan ever.

Our families were meant to be multigenerational.

Multigenerational story tellers.  Multigenerational value keepers.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash.

Bill High

Bill is CEO & Founder of Vyne Legacy. He works with families to equip them with tools to build multigenerational legacies, and he teaches givers and financial advisers on transformational biblical generosity. He is the co-author with David Green of Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously.

Published September 5, 2022

Topics: Family Legacy | Lessons with Bill

BibleBiblical LegacyChildrenFamily LegacyGenerationsMulti-Generational