“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

As I sit here and look around at all the things we have accumulated over all the years, I wonder what my children would want. My husband and I have this conversation often. Would our daughter want my jewelry? Would our son want his dad’s tools? Is there something special that reminds them of a time or place that they would want? Would she know the story of how the china that she has inherited came into our possession? All these things I wonder. I wonder if the things that are important and have meaning to me, will be important and have meaning to them one day. Maybe, maybe not…but they are material things that, no matter how important, will one day fade and rust away.

So what, then, do we leave our children? What do we pass down that will last? What should they inherit that will never fade nor rust away?

Joshua 4:5-7 “and Joshua said to them: ‘Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying “what do these stones mean to you?” Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”

The stones represented what God had done for the children of Israel. A reminder of how he brought them through what seemed like an impossible path.

As I read this verse, I wonder if I have passed down what they will need to make it in this messed up world today. Have I shown them what it means to let God lead you through what seems like an impossible path? Have I left them with something that will not only get them through this life, but that will prepare them for eternal life? Are there “stones” in my life that I have left for them that they can ask and I will be able to remind them how God led me through?

I pray every day that I have. This, as parents, as aunts and uncles, as brothers, sisters and leaders in Christ, is what we should always pray for. That our “stones” will ALWAYS serve as reminders of what God has, can and will do!

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