Day 9/365- Genesis 25:27-28:5

When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," for he feared to say, "My wife," thinking, "lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah," because she was attractive in appearance. (Genesis 26:7)

Sound familiar? It should. Abraham did this same thing twice with his wife Sarah (see Genesis 12 & Genesis 20). Where did Isaac get this from? It's hard to know exactly but you can't underestimate the influence that his father had on him.
No matter what we tell our kids, our example will be much more weighty than anything else we can say. We must teach our kids with our words. We are responsible to evangelize & disciple the next generation. But we cannot underestimate our example, how we live our lives in front of our kids.


When I was a kid I used to go through my dad's closet & put on his blazers & shoes. The blazer used to drag the floor & I used to shuffle my feet to be able to walk with the big shoes. I used to preach in his jacket just like he would. I would use the wood alter that held our family Bible in the living room. I remember a lot of what my parents told me. I have a lot of good quotes. My mom used to always say, "Nothing good happens after midnight." She also used to say, "You never lose when you wait on God." But more than all of the things that they told me, I have turned out doing what they have done! I find myself doing the same things that they did when I was a kid. All of us have had those moments when we think, "Oh no! That sounds just like my parents!"

We have a great opportunity to affect our kids for Christ or not. It doesn't matter what the youth pastor or pastor says at the church if Mom & Dad are not modeling it at home. The greatest influence that kids will have on their lives is their parents. So let's look at our lives and ask ourselves, "Do I want my kids living their lives like I'm living mine? What behaviors, habits, or patterns do I need to eliminate so that my kids don't imitate them? What priorities, actions, & passions do I need to incorporate into my life so that my kids will imitate them?" Don't have kids? How are we adjusting our lives now so that we will be the parents that our kids can imitate? Where is God calling us to act? Let's do it, for the sake of the next generation.