Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

Raising Generations

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Sarah Mae talks a lot about raising generations.

We are not just raising our children, but we are raising generations. This is powerful to us, and we want to take up the responsibility of doing our very best to pass on a godly legacy to those will never even know.  We believe shepherding our children as opposed to outside schooling is the best way to do this (in the spirit of Deuteronomy 11:18-21).

While obviously we don’t homeschool, I believe there is merit to the idea that what we do with our children is not just for our children. It’s for their children and their children.

This concept hit me while reading Genesis on Tuesday when reading about Enoch.

22-24 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years.  Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

We don’t know a lot about Enoch except that he was faithful and must have been pretty faithful because God saw it fit for him not to die.  He was just taken away.  What great faith Enoch must have had.  The thing that gets me is this.  Guess who Enoch’s great-grandson was?

Noah.

One of the most faithful men in Scriptures.  Crazy man built an ark and survived the greatest flood ever.  Insane! levels! of faith!

If I did all my calculations right, Enoch never met Noah. In fact, he was born 69 years after Enoch was taken away.  And I can’t help but think that it was through Enoch, and his son, and his son, and then to Noah that this great faith was demonstrated and passed on.  I’m just guessing it would make quite an impression if you knew your great-grandfather was taken away by God because of his great faith.   I love that the same phrase is used to describe Noah just a chapter over, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time and he walked with God.”

Sometimes we get caught up on the big! things! we should be doing but sometimes our big thing might just to be faithful and walk with God as an example to our children.  Because who knows.  Your great grandchild just might need enough faith to build an ark.

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  3. I’ve never looked at it from this point of view. I mean I do love the opening scripture and I try to live by it through the work I do with children as I feel we are building the next generation and what we teach, learn and sow is what they will all come to develop over time too. After reading last night about both Enoch and Noah, I was really taken with how much faith and courage Noah had and now to see how it was possibly sowed through the generations before him really makes me excited and curious about how my daily walk of Faith can effect those in the next generations to come. Thanks for the post.

  4. This is great insight and mirrors what struck me when I was reading this passage. It’s amazing that even after reading through Genesis several times over the years, I never really took note of the generational faith, but it stood out hugely to me this morning. And then you posted this.

  5. I LOVE this! For some reason this has always been something I have known in my own life. I guess b/c my great grandfather was a preacher and his legacy of faith is seen in my mom’s generation and mine. I want to continue to remember that my faith will impact future generations not just my own kids. Thank you for sharing this!
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