Wisdom & Legacy

If God came to you and told you he would give you anything you wanted, what would you ask of him?

1 Kings tells us that King David and Bathsheba's son was Solomon. With some minor meddling, upon King David's death Solomon became King.
God came to King Solomon in a dream and told Solomon He would give him anything.
King Solomon replied,
"So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?" (1 Kings 3:9)

Wow!

I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't ask God for a discerning heart or wisdom.
I think I would ask God for something like:

~ Heath for my kids
~ Protection for those I love
~ Financial security
~ Children who want to serve Him
~ The chance to see this world he created
~ To eat anything I want and not gain weight

Ok…the last one is a bit silly….but seriously….how nice would that be?

Solomon asks for wisdom. Doesn't that just blow you away?
He was already equipped with more wisdom that I have. He had the good sense to ask God for a discerning heart.

Along the way he made some mistakes with the ladies.
I'm pretty sure 700 wives and 300 concubines is a little over the top; right?

But He was wise. He made the wise decision to offer to cut a baby in half in order to prove who the rightful mother was.

But ultimately, Solomon had been disobedient to God with his choices in women and God punished him. God did this through hurting Solomon's legacy.

This really struck me. The mistakes that Solomon made affected his children.

What mistakes about me will affect my children?

{How cute are these faces}

I am so grateful that my parents loved Jesus and fought back against any generational struggles that held our family back in the past.
Because of their faithfulness to God and because of their desire to have their kids lives be full; I don't have the same struggles as my grandparents and great grandparents.

I know that I have things in my life that can hold me back from completely serving him.
As one of my best friends said, "I'm battling it out with my flesh". She meant that this life is a constant battle between what our flesh wants and what our Spirit needs.
But I have been feeling God pull on my life to serve him more fully.

I want my children to have a fuller, closer relationship with Jesus. I know that they will have a desire to follow him if I have that desire too. Our children watch us. I can remember watching my Dad read his Bible in the mornings, and to this day I can call him with a Biblical question and he'll usually have an answer for me. Watching my parents love Jesus made me want to love him too.

I want my kids to catch me reading my Bible, or singing a praise song, or treating somebody the way Jesus would have.
I want my kids to notice that I have a Christ centered marriage. That their parents put Jesus in the center of their lives, and that makes them happier. I want them to see how we love each other, and they can have a fulfilling marriage too with a spouse who loves and serves the Lord.

That is the legacy I want to leave them with.

A legacy that is focused around loving Jesus, and showing other people the love of Jesus.