[Darris McNeely] There's an old saying, some of you will know to be true that the best two days of the visits with your grandchildren in your home are the first day and the last day. Someone told me that a few years ago, and there is truth to that saying. We just recently went through a week, my wife and I, with having two of our four grandchildren in our home in our annual time together with them, and activities, and work around the house and everything, and it was an enjoyable time. I recognize that it's a tremendous opportunity to be able to see your grandchildren, two generations from you, and be a part of their lives. I was thinking about this. I go back and I can remember very well, my grandparents, I had the privilege and time with them and getting to know them when I was a boy. And now I see my grandchildren now going into their teen years and it's a great privilege. And I realize I'm kind of standing at a pinnacle. I can look back two generations and know my history, my story, and I can see my story continuing into the second generation from me now and have some small part beginning to shape that and to think about that. And that is a tremendous blessing.

There's a Scripture that I thought about in regard to this. It's Psalm 127. We know that one quite well. It's familiar when it says that, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." And it goes on just a very short Psalm and it says in verse 3, "Behold, the children are a heritage from the Lord," a gift from God, a part of our life, that is our heritage. One way or the other, however, they turn out, whatever they do, they are our legacy. And they will write and continue our story. It says, "The fruit of the womb is a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them." We only have four grandchildren. We had two sons and four grandchildren. So maybe not as full a quiver as some people have. But it's been adequate and it's been rewarding. The Psalm concludes, "They shall not be ashamed. They shall speak with their enemies in the gate."

Now that phrase is an interesting one, speak with their enemies in the gate. The gate is really... In the context of Scripture in the ancient world, the gate was the county courthouse. The gate was where the civic administration of a county, a town was handed out and taken care of. And what the Scripture is saying is that your heritage will speak with your enemies or just people and they will speak of you for you in the gate. The continuity of reputation and generations in a town and a community is very important. How we raise our children is extremely important. I've had a couple of situations, personally, in the last few years where I had to go to the gate of the city. One of the cities was where I grew up and deal with some business that had to deal with the generations and make sure that it was done right so the reputation of my family name was kept intact. And a more recent one, where we had to go also to law, to deal with the situation in order to maintain the integrity of a generational matter. And things get messed up in the generations, in the families, and it all becomes very interesting as we know. But when it's done right, it works.

And this Scripture, talks about doing it God's way, letting God and His way, His laws, build a community, build the house. And when that happens, there's good things that take place. And so, I was thinking about that, with two of my grandchildren here in recent times and the visit that we had with them, very thankful to have that, to be able to interact with them for a week and shape them and somewhat through just memories that we might have for a week into their future and hopefully leave a little bit of an imprint for them.

I hope that you can do the same with yours and I hope that the Scripture will help you to understand something regarding doing it God's way and the legacy that is left in making sure as best we can that they are a heritage for us not only today but in the future.

Something to think about in the midst of a lot of other bad news and a lot of other frustrations of the world when it comes to family, Scripture, and God.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.