Healing Family Relationships Across GenerationsSample

Faithfulness and growth through the generations is a major theme in Scripture and is near to the heart of God. One of the most powerful visions for multigenerational faith and connection is found in Psalm 78.

These first four verses give a picture of the power of the family in passing faith in God through the generations. First, there is an affirmation that what we have heard and know of God has come to us from our fathers, the generations before us, both within our families and within the faith community. Because we have received the faith generationally, we are called to share it generationally.

Here we find God's command for fathers to intentionally teach and spiritually disciple their children. Now look at the generational impact. It begins simply, "He commanded our fathers to teach their children, that the next generation might know them" (verse 6a ESV). God wants me to have a loving, close, healthy relationship with my children, so that He can use me to help them follow Him. But it doesn't stop there. God's vision is not just that our families would lead our children to follow Him, but also that they (our children) would lead our unborn grandchildren to love Him! It is our unborn grandchildren who are being spoken of in the verse that says "the children yet unborn" (verse 6b).

Now look at the next verse, that they might "arise and tell them to their children" (verse 6b). What is happening here? My unborn grandchildren are telling my unborn great-grandchildren about the great and glorious deeds of the Lord. And what is the result? "They should set their hope in God" (verse 7). Who is setting their hope in God? My unborn great-grandchildren!

This vision of spiritual legacy extending to "children yet unborn" gives profound meaning to our present struggles. The way we navigate family conflict today—with grace or bitterness, with truth or deception, with courage or fear—establishes patterns that will either bless or burden generations we will never meet.

Reflection Question: What spiritual truths or practices do you hope will still be alive in your family four generations from now? What are you doing today to make that more likely?