May 2, 2024 • 32 mins
Summary:
Dive deep into the significance of building a lasting legacy in this enlightening episode of "The Treehouse Storyteller". Discover the power of forming a firm foundation in faith and learn about the biblical significance of standing stones. Our host shares insightful biblical stories and real-life experiences that revolve around family legacy and faith, providing a unique perspective as a family photographer.
Explore how our daily life can serve as a means to build the kingdom of God, emphasizing the importance of creating standing stones or markers of faith in our lives. Our discussion also sheds light on the concept of a 'redemptive legacy', and the idea of charting our personal course to avoid inherited curses. We stress the need to lay up treasures in heaven—those unaffected by worldly influences and destruction.
For those desiring to build a family legacy deeply rooted in faith, this episode provides a compelling journey. We glean ideas from leadership tying into the biblical story in 2 Chronicles 32-35.
CALL to ACTION:
We pose a challenge to create your own family mission statement, including shared values and purpose, and serving to safeguard the agreed family legacy.
Join OUR family as we endeavor to establish a family legacy—words etched not only on a page but within our hearts, shaping actions that stand firm in the face of life’s storms. This episode of "The Treehouse Storyteller" promises to be a must-listen for those committed to leaving a lasting and unwavering legacy for future generations.
TODAY'S SPONSOR:
This Episode is brought to you by Brave Books! If you are fed up with the woke agenda coming after your kids, be sure to order your free book HERE when you subscribe and take advantage of the 15% off when you shop my link!
MAKE SURE AND HEAD TO THE TREEHOUSE for the shop, blog, artwork, and more encouragement! www.thetreehousestoryteller.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hey, you're listening to The Treehouse Storyteller. Meet me in The Treehouse
for God-shaped storytelling.
Treehouse Storyteller is where we can come together as messy parents seeking
Jesus together and raising kids to love Him too.
If you aren't scared of addressing cultural issues head on and finding a deeper
(00:24):
understanding of the biblical worldview to share with your children,
then you've come to the right place.
I'm not afraid to be transparent and tell all of the juicy details.
Our children are being chased by the world and it is our job to be well-equipped
and know not only how to lead our flock, but successfully send our arrows out
into the world one day to build the kingdom.
(00:46):
So snuggle up by the fire or soak up the sunshine with those earbuds in and
meet me in the tree house for some biblical storytelling.
Music.
Hey sweet listener do you ever think about what kind of legacy that you are
(01:10):
leaving sometimes I talk about this idea of capturing our memories or rather
trying to capture sure your family's memories.
So I'm actually a family photographer and I have been since my oldest son was
six months old and my husband was in Afghanistan.
(01:30):
Kind of crazy. Back in 2011, I went into business.
So it's been quite a long journey over three different states.
And it's the hobby that just keeps giving back to me that I just love so much.
But what I talk about a lot is taking these precious moments,
(01:52):
recording these glimpses in time of, you know,
maybe it's a father and son or a mother daughter or a mother and son and a husband
and wife or just the whole family unit and kind of being able to have the opportunity
as a photographer to freeze time in the form of photography.
(02:12):
And then we can cherish these memories and these moments forever.
And yes, it makes a beautiful marketing tag.
It works well in branding. But I mean, really, there's truth to it.
What I love about God's Word is that it is a capture of God's story that is forever recorded.
(02:37):
Forever given to us to read and explore over and over and over again.
His Word is living.
This is so exciting to me because it's not a stale memory, but it's something
that can make new memories every time we read his word.
This means that every time we can pick up his Bible, his word,
(03:01):
we can see a glimpse of our ancient heritage,
the stories, the miracles, the testimonies, and the hardships from generations prior to ours.
We can start to see how our tiny little story fits inside God's big story.
(03:23):
We can teach our kids the importance of living a life worthy of God's story.
The Bible has already been completed and written, but friends, the story isn't over.
We know prophecies, we know a glimpse of what it will look like,
but we don't fully, fully know the story yet, and the story hasn't been finished.
(03:48):
We have not had Jesus come back. We're not living in eternity with Him.
And until that happens, the story is still going.
There's more to be told. God is not dead, but He is living and alive in each
and every one of us that has chosen Him as our Savior.
(04:09):
If we are in him, then we have the Holy Spirit in us.
We are filled with his power. We are made in his image and we were created to worship him.
We have a legacy to build and one day leave for those after us.
Unless Jesus comes back before we go up to heaven or before I'm done with this
(04:32):
podcast, then we have the great opportunity to continue telling the story through our family.
We can tell this through our words, our stories, but also through photographs.
I have to imagine that if the Bible would have been written in modern times,
then it would have been Pinterest and Instagram worthy instead of scribes.
(04:56):
There would have been posts, shares, and so many iPhone photos.
Can you just picture Jesus taking selfies with his disciples? Oh my word.
Okay, so let's do our part to continue his story by using our family life,
our daily obedience to Christ to build the kingdom and show off his glory.
(05:20):
Today, if you haven't guessed it yet, we are talking about leaving a legacy,
specifically a family legacy.
So the older my kids get, the more I think about the future,
and specifically a future where I'm not there.
Maybe we just live far apart. Maybe I've gone on to be in the arms of Jesus.
(05:42):
But either way, I see a time where my husband and I are not there guiding them any longer.
I think this must be normal to envision as I hear older generations allude to this idea.
Before I thought about my own legacy, I often thought of my father's legacy.
We only have a few of the Miles boys to continue to produce the family name.
(06:06):
Likewise, we only have one son, ourselves, and he's the last of the Peru boys.
We always tease him that he must have a bunch of boys to continue the name,
but we are actually a bit serious, too.
As for my father's legacy, there are significant things and choices that my
dad made that altered the course of his life to better himself and our family
(06:31):
unit compared to those before him.
This is what I like to call a redemptive legacy.
I just made this up, so I don't know if there's like someone else out there
that's coined this term.
But when we refuse to live out generational curses and rebuke these generational curses,
(06:55):
then we can literally change the course of our lives as well as future generations.
So when we have a raging alcoholic in our bloodstream and we kick this lifestyle
to the curb, we can see the fruit created out of obedience.
Or perhaps it's laziness or ignorance that keeps the family held in bondage.
(07:19):
All it takes is one generation to cling to their purpose in Christ and pursue
His gift of knowledge and make the choice to become something more.
Likewise, all it takes is one generation to derail the straight path.
(07:40):
That one divorce, that one drinker, the one abuser.
That's all it takes. And now we have created a different path than the one that was started.
I'm sure everyone has a story like this in their family that they can relate
to this a degree or two. We see samples of this everywhere in scripture.
(08:03):
From the beginning of time, family lineage has been altered from decisions of their predecessors.
Oh my goodness, guys, like I think about the prodigal son, the miraculous return
back to his father's arms, ultimately
telling a wonderful story about redemption in their legacy story.
(08:24):
And there's so many, I mean, pick any Bible story and And it will show you the
lineage and show you where there's twists and turns based on different generations.
Now, the generations that we see almost always, they turn to sinful nature.
It is very human nature in our fallen sinful world that there is,
(08:48):
you know, that one head family member that is following after the Lord and their
descendants start to trickle away.
So I want to bring up kind of this really cool concept that I uncovered studying
this and looking for clues and really looking for different and unique stories biblically.
(09:10):
So have you heard about standing stones?
So there's multiple examples in scripture of God's people building their legacy see in the Bible.
So picture this, back in ancient biblical times, the Israelites had this tradition
of setting up these big stones called standing stones.
(09:34):
Okay, they weren't just rocks. They were giant, giant boulders,
and they were reminders of their promises to God and the key moments in their history.
Now think about how that tradition could apply to us.
Our legacy isn't just about what we leave behind in terms of money or a fancy family name,
(09:58):
but it's building these symbolic standing stones through our lives,
markers that carry our values,
our faith lessons, and the richness we hold inside, all passed down to the next generation.
So there's examples from Genesis 35, we see standing stones in Bethel,
(10:18):
and the 12 tribes in Exodus 24,
right after the giving of the law to Moses and the tablets, then the next day
he woke up and he made these 12 giant standing stones to represent the 12 tribes.
And then the reminder for the Israelites in Joshua 4.21 is another example that you could look up.
(10:43):
So we had, I have to tell this fun side story.
So we had this amazing opportunity to go to one of my favorite bands, Rend Collectives.
Concert on Saturday night. And I love what one of the lines from their song, as for me, reminds us.
(11:07):
It says, when the foundation is firm, the storms don't matter.
Let's say it one more time. When the foundation is firm, the storms don't matter.
Wow. What not only a biblical statement, but applying this to legacy and the
(11:28):
standing stone. So let's talk about these stones for a minute.
So these stones are like huge, right? You can't move a stone.
Let's think about some of the things that we use in our life that maybe are
somewhat symbolic. We don't think of it as much.
So let's go back to the photography concept.
Photos can get lost. Digital photos for sure can get lost. Hard ones can burn in a fire.
(11:53):
You know, prints can be ruined. I have so many people that come to me wanting
me to fix their super ancient, you know, 80 year old photograph.
And it's very hard to do. There are professionals that are great at it, but it is hard to do.
They get lost, they get torn, they get wet, moldy, whatever, you name it.
(12:14):
And they're not Not necessarily. They might last a couple generations,
but do they last forever?
I don't know. I don't know. We haven't had photography around more than a couple hundred years, right?
So I mean, it's not, it's, that's, that's a tough one.
But these standing stones are,
(12:34):
are huge. And what's so significant about it is that they are honestly very
hard to move. They're heavy.
They're very significant. I mean, unless you just really, really wanted,
it's easy to burn a photograph.
It's easy to set a piece of paper on fire.
(12:56):
It's easy to press the delete button. But when's the last time you tried to go move a giant rock?
Now, my husband takes pleasure in this because as he says, he likes doing hard
things and he likes moving heavy things.
Well, okay, babe, why don't you move this really cool rock to my garden space
(13:16):
over here and he'll do it.
But a normal average person is not going to find pleasure in moving stones.
They are firm. They are permanent to a degree.
They are a lot of times kind of one with the earth.
Like they've just made their mold in the earth.
They've pressed in earth and grass and weeds and debris and other grasses have
(13:41):
grown up around the rock, which makes it almost impossible to move by hand.
And you need some sort of leverage or tool or shovel or something else against
it to pry it out of the earth.
Guys, this is how significant these standing stones were.
They were not meant to be moved.
(14:03):
They were not meant to be taken up or carried off or destroyed.
They were meant to stay where they were and to represent something very powerful.
So what if we saw our own family legacy and our own family story as significant as a giant stone.
(14:31):
Does that sound weird? Like what if we were building a foundation?
If the foundation is firm, the storms don't matter.
If we are laying a foundation down that is so incredible and so firm and so
black and white that this is what our family stands for and this is who we are as a family.
(14:55):
And this can't move. This can't be changed.
God has given us this word. This is who we are. This is our identity in Christ as a family unit.
If that is truly how firm the foundation is, then no matter what storm, sinful temptation,
(15:15):
false ideologies, or influences come at your family. It doesn't matter.
The storm just goes up and over it and you're untouched. You're unmoved.
You are still right there.
I just, I love that picture. I love thinking of, gosh, I want to build that kind of family.
(15:38):
I want to build something so strong that it cannot move. the waves,
the wind, nothing is going to toss it around. It's not going to get lost.
It's not going to lose its way. It's going to stay right there.
Matthew 6, 20 through 21 says,
(15:59):
but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not
destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure
is there your heart will be also. so.
I want my treasure to be building a kingdom for my family.
I want to build something here on earth for the time that we have on earth,
(16:24):
but that is kingdom focused and kingdom purposed.
I want to build up my treasures in heaven while still on earth and where the
thieves of this This earth cannot steal because we are building our heart issues.
We're building our faith.
(16:45):
We're building our ability as a family to walk closer together with the Lord.
Are you guys tracking with me? Is this important to you? It's so, so important to me.
The more I mother, the more I parent, the more I feel like I am possibly failing
(17:05):
at it at times, but the more I want to do better.
All right, so I dug through another story, story. And honestly,
I got lost in it because it was so wild what the Lord shows in the Bible for us to see.
So in 2 Chronicles 32 through about 35, you can kind of keep going though,
(17:30):
we see the story focuses on Ezekiel's reign as king of Judah.
There's going to be like a lot of names, and I hesitate even saying all of them.
But what happens, I'll give you a flyby, what happens is that we see the kingdom
(17:51):
given over, the reign passed down from family member to family member to family
member to family member.
And with every changing of the guards, if you will, or changing of the reigning
king, we see a giant shift, whether it's for good or for bad.
(18:11):
And what I think is so significant here and kind of the point I want to drive
home is how easily one generation,
one, one generation can change the course of a family, but in this instance,
also a nation, one generation.
(18:31):
We don't have this kingdom set up like we see in Chronicles.
And so it's not passed down from generation to generation like this.
So it starts in chapter 32, 2 Chronicles, of Ezekiel's reign as king of Judah. I'm sorry, Hezekiah.
(18:53):
Hezekiah leads significant forms to restore worship and strengthen the nation.
So he's like, hey, I am pro-God, pro-worship, let's strengthen the nation.
He fortifies Jerusalem against Assyrian threat.
He's trusting God's protection rather than relying on just military.
(19:18):
He's really putting his trust and his faith in what the Lord can do.
And then things start to happen.
He seeks the prophet Isaiah's counsel and prays earnestly for God to deliver
them from the Assyrian king.
And so then God answers his prayer by sending an angel to strike down the Assyrian
(19:39):
army, me and they saved Jerusalem.
And you're like, yay, this is such a great story.
And then Hezekiah's faith and obedience lead to a time of peace and prosperity in Judah.
And if you like close the book and you're like, all right, I'm done with my
Bible study. That was such a good chapter. Then you come back to 2 Chronicles 33.
And now the chapter focuses on the reign of Manasseh, who at 12 years old becomes
(20:03):
the king and leads Judah into idolatry and evil practices. this is.
However, after being captured and humbled by the Assyrians, he repents and starts seeking God.
So this is actually like one of those redemptive legacy stories.
Like, okay, he came back. He came back to the Lord. He came back around,
leading to his restoration and the removal of idols from Judah.
(20:25):
Okay, so now in verse 21, we switch again.
And now Amon is the son of Manasseh, and he becomes king after his father's death.
So unlike his father's repentant heart.
Amen follows the wicked ways of Manasseh's earlier reign, continuing to leave
Judah into idolatry and evil practices.
(20:47):
His reign's like super, super short. He's assassinated by his own servants and
the people of the land put his son Josiah on the throne.
Chapter 34. I don't know if you're tracking with me. You've got to open up 2
Chronicles and read through this because it's back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth. So you're like, oh, sweet.
This guy's gonna, he's gonna do great. Ah, dang it. His son ruined it again.
(21:10):
Oh, he's gonna do great. Nope, nope, nope, nope.
Oh, he's gonna do great. Yeah, yeah, he did. He came back to the Lord.
That's great. That's great.
Oh, and then his son just totally dropped the ball. I mean, it's like back and
forth the whole way through. So then Josiah becomes king.
Guys, he becomes king at eight years old. Like that's way too much on his shoulders.
He initiates, I don't even know like how this is possible.
(21:33):
But it's like, oh, and he initiates reforms to restore true worship of God and Judah.
And you're like, yay, King Josiah.
He orders the repair of the temple and discovers the book of the law. This is big.
And then upon hearing its contents, Josiah leads the nation in renewing their
(21:55):
covenant with God and purging Judah of idolatry.
So once again, you're like, yes, we got it back. We got it back.
Then chapter 35, Josiah celebrates the Passover following the instructions of the law.
He provides for the priests and Levites. They perform their duties faithfully.
But then even though he's being righteous, Josiah is killed in battle.
(22:17):
And now we go back to like one thing after the other.
So, I mean, these chapters highlight all these different kings in Judah.
Here's some that are disobedient. Here's some that aren't. Okay,
so these chapters are literally like a back and forth yo-yo,
like good, bad, good, bad, good, bad. So what do we learn from this?
(22:39):
Like there's so many takeaways from this.
One, you can just look at our own government structure and say,
you know what, it really can make a huge impact. impact, like between one,
instead of thinking of one king, like with one administration to the next administration.
I mean, we can have like, okay, things are looking up. And then the next administration
(23:00):
comes in and you're like, oh, shoot, we're in trouble again.
And then the next administration comes in. You're like, okay,
okay, we got this. We got this. It's great. It's great. We're in peace times.
All these things are great.
Positive economy, all the things, right? And then four years later. Ah, dang it.
And here we are in 2024. I wasn't even going to go political.
(23:22):
I think we can all agree and reflect on 2 Chronicles that things can change
for the good or for the bad so quickly, so, so quickly.
So what do we do with our own family?
What do we do? How do we make those standing stones in our family so that generations down the line,
(23:44):
we're not giving into idolatry and evil doing and falling away from the Lord,
but we are are continuing a family that is for the Lord.
And when it trickles down our family tree, are our descendants still following our legacy?
Now, clearly it's not about us. Clearly it's not about you and me or my parents
(24:05):
or your parents or our grandparents, but it's about an idea that's far bigger than us.
And it's about this storytelling that we see over and over again,
especially in the Old Testament,
where a father tells his son and his son and his son, and he says,
you have to tell and record these things and tell these stories about creation
(24:27):
and about our God and the God of Abraham.
And here's all of these details, and you have to continue to tell them so they're not forgotten.
Because those ancient Bible characters knew that if you failed to tell the story, it would get lost.
So my question for you and for myself is, are we telling the story?
(24:48):
Are we telling it when we lay down and when we rise?
Are we telling it to our kids every day? Are we talking about Jesus inside of
our walls, inside of our home and our cars when we drive to different things?
Are we telling the story of God's goodness, God's faithfulness,
our testimony to our children?
So we're doing this fun thing in our home and we haven't fully started it yet,
(25:12):
but I want to walk this with you.
So if you guys want to join this journey with me, I think it would be super,
super awesome to do really together as a community.
And I'd love to hear your feedback. I'd love to see you guys actually do this with me.
Okay, so we decided with various things that have been going on,
we've just been greatly inspired to create our own family mission statement.
(25:38):
Now, this is something I've never done before.
We never had one growing up. I know one person that has written one,
and I asked her to share hers with me the other day. So I have one example.
But the thing that I have done a lot of, I have done a lot of branding statements
for different companies. I've done personal mission statements.
My husband's done many mission statements for different companies and organizations across the board.
(26:04):
So here is my personal mission statement. And this is not refined.
This is something I wrote very quickly as a spirit led.
And it was just an introductory, like, here's an overview of my mission statement.
So in every word I breathe, in every step I take, I long to create a legacy that speaks to Jesus.
(26:27):
I desire to write, speak, and create in a way that shines light in a dark world.
I don't want to go with the flow, but instead go against the grain as I am set apart.
May my kids look back and see the work I've done for the kingdom.
But may the Father most importantly say, well done, my good and faithful servant.
(26:51):
So that is an example of a personal mission statement.
And I wrote that last week. And after writing that, I knew that this next episode
had to be about legacy because it was such an important part of my personal mission statement.
That now I need to expand on that and turn that into a family mission statement.
(27:11):
So what we are going to do is get a giant piece of paper, put it in a central location.
And maybe, you know, like craft paper and tape it on the fridge or put it on
your dining room table during the day and let the kids and all of us write down
ideas as they come to our hearts and come to our minds.
And the Lord presents ideas to us and convicts us of different things.
(27:36):
And I want to just fill up this page with all sorts of things that we as a family
are on a mission together to accomplish.
And it can be in list form.
It could be bullet points. It could just be words. I mean, you guys could do
it however you wanted. It could be in a paragraph.
It could be like a story. It could be different graphics or pictures or a painting
(27:58):
with words I mean, it really could look however you want, but I think this is so important.
I want to build a standing stone with my family.
I want to create words that are not just words on a page, but that are words
from each of our hearts to each other that we actually refer to and we look at.
(28:21):
And when we are breaking that mission, we pull each other toward it again.
Notice I said pull each other toward it and not condemn and not point fingers,
but pull each other back into the fold, back into the mission.
So if there's a company that is going off course of what their mission looks
like, the leadership, if the leadership is running properly, is going to correct the.
(28:45):
They're going to notice what the company is failing at. And they're going to
say, hey, well, hold on. This is not one of our key values.
This is one of our key values. And we need to stick to that.
This is how we run this here.
This is how this business was founded. And we need to stay on course.
When the foundation is firm, the storms don't matter.
(29:09):
There's nothing in the lyrics, nothing in the Bible that says the storms won't come.
It's just that they won't matter. Can they be hard?
Yeah. Can they maybe break away a little bit? Sure.
Maybe erode a little bit of your stone, but it's not going to destroy it.
It's still going to be there.
So guys, I am super excited to challenge you and my own family to do this exercise.
(29:33):
And I can't wait to come back as a follow-up episode where I'm probably going
to bring on my husband with me and we're going to share our family statement
and our family mission statement, if you will. I'm so excited for the opportunity.
I'm super hopeful that the Lord is going to just give us something really cool
to write down and to really pray over with our family and just come together with that.
(29:55):
And I see more and more so many opportunities where the enemy is trying to break
the family unit apart. heart.
And I think we have to give a bigger effort because our God is bigger.
We have to say, enemy, you have no grounds here. Nothing. You have nowhere to stand.
Get out of our home. Get out of our family unit.
(30:17):
Stop trying to destroy what we have firmly planted because we have a mission
to live out together. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
I would really love to to hear from you. If anyone can leave a review or a like
or a share, it really, really helps get these episodes into more ears and into more homes.
(30:40):
Thank you guys so much for listening. Have a really blessed week and go write
those family mission statements.
This episode was brought to you by Brave Books.
If you're fed up with the woke agenda that you you see at all of the big box
stores and on all of your local shelves, be sure to turn to Brave Books.
(31:02):
They are pro-God, pro-America, pro-family.
And be sure to use my link below in the show notes to get a free book today
when you subscribe as well as 15% off your order.
Music.
Wait, before you go, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and follow us
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(31:24):
Head on over to thetreehousestoryteller.com for more products,
artwork, photography, and encouragement. See you next time.
Hey, you're listening to The Treehouse Storyteller. Meet me in The Treehouse
for God-shaped storytelling.
Treehouse Storyteller is where we can come together as messy parents seeking
Jesus together and raising kids to love Him too.
If you aren't scared of addressing cultural issues head on and finding a deeper
(00:24):
understanding of the biblical worldview to share with your children,
then you've come to the right place.
I'm not afraid to be transparent and tell all of the juicy details.
Our children are being chased by the world and it is our job to be well-equipped
and know not only how to lead our flock, but successfully send our arrows out
into the world one day to build the kingdom.
(00:46):
So snuggle up by the fire or soak up the sunshine with those earbuds in and
meet me in the tree house for some biblical storytelling.
Music.
Hey sweet listener do you ever think about what kind of legacy that you are
(01:10):
leaving sometimes I talk about this idea of capturing our memories or rather
trying to capture sure your family's memories.
So I'm actually a family photographer and I have been since my oldest son was
six months old and my husband was in Afghanistan.
(01:30):
Kind of crazy. Back in 2011, I went into business.
So it's been quite a long journey over three different states.
And it's the hobby that just keeps giving back to me that I just love so much.
But what I talk about a lot is taking these precious moments,
(01:52):
recording these glimpses in time of, you know,
maybe it's a father and son or a mother daughter or a mother and son and a husband
and wife or just the whole family unit and kind of being able to have the opportunity
as a photographer to freeze time in the form of photography.
(02:12):
And then we can cherish these memories and these moments forever.
And yes, it makes a beautiful marketing tag.
It works well in branding. But I mean, really, there's truth to it.
What I love about God's Word is that it is a capture of God's story that is forever recorded.
(02:37):
Forever given to us to read and explore over and over and over again.
His Word is living.
This is so exciting to me because it's not a stale memory, but it's something
that can make new memories every time we read his word.
This means that every time we can pick up his Bible, his word,
(03:01):
we can see a glimpse of our ancient heritage,
the stories, the miracles, the testimonies, and the hardships from generations prior to ours.
We can start to see how our tiny little story fits inside God's big story.
(03:23):
We can teach our kids the importance of living a life worthy of God's story.
The Bible has already been completed and written, but friends, the story isn't over.
We know prophecies, we know a glimpse of what it will look like,
but we don't fully, fully know the story yet, and the story hasn't been finished.
(03:48):
We have not had Jesus come back. We're not living in eternity with Him.
And until that happens, the story is still going.
There's more to be told. God is not dead, but He is living and alive in each
and every one of us that has chosen Him as our Savior.
(04:09):
If we are in him, then we have the Holy Spirit in us.
We are filled with his power. We are made in his image and we were created to worship him.
We have a legacy to build and one day leave for those after us.
Unless Jesus comes back before we go up to heaven or before I'm done with this
(04:32):
podcast, then we have the great opportunity to continue telling the story through our family.
We can tell this through our words, our stories, but also through photographs.
I have to imagine that if the Bible would have been written in modern times,
then it would have been Pinterest and Instagram worthy instead of scribes.
(04:56):
There would have been posts, shares, and so many iPhone photos.
Can you just picture Jesus taking selfies with his disciples? Oh my word.
Okay, so let's do our part to continue his story by using our family life,
our daily obedience to Christ to build the kingdom and show off his glory.
(05:20):
Today, if you haven't guessed it yet, we are talking about leaving a legacy,
specifically a family legacy.
So the older my kids get, the more I think about the future,
and specifically a future where I'm not there.
Maybe we just live far apart. Maybe I've gone on to be in the arms of Jesus.
(05:42):
But either way, I see a time where my husband and I are not there guiding them any longer.
I think this must be normal to envision as I hear older generations allude to this idea.
Before I thought about my own legacy, I often thought of my father's legacy.
We only have a few of the Miles boys to continue to produce the family name.
(06:06):
Likewise, we only have one son, ourselves, and he's the last of the Peru boys.
We always tease him that he must have a bunch of boys to continue the name,
but we are actually a bit serious, too.
As for my father's legacy, there are significant things and choices that my
dad made that altered the course of his life to better himself and our family
(06:31):
unit compared to those before him.
This is what I like to call a redemptive legacy.
I just made this up, so I don't know if there's like someone else out there
that's coined this term.
But when we refuse to live out generational curses and rebuke these generational curses,
(06:55):
then we can literally change the course of our lives as well as future generations.
So when we have a raging alcoholic in our bloodstream and we kick this lifestyle
to the curb, we can see the fruit created out of obedience.
Or perhaps it's laziness or ignorance that keeps the family held in bondage.
(07:19):
All it takes is one generation to cling to their purpose in Christ and pursue
His gift of knowledge and make the choice to become something more.
Likewise, all it takes is one generation to derail the straight path.
(07:40):
That one divorce, that one drinker, the one abuser.
That's all it takes. And now we have created a different path than the one that was started.
I'm sure everyone has a story like this in their family that they can relate
to this a degree or two. We see samples of this everywhere in scripture.
(08:03):
From the beginning of time, family lineage has been altered from decisions of their predecessors.
Oh my goodness, guys, like I think about the prodigal son, the miraculous return
back to his father's arms, ultimately
telling a wonderful story about redemption in their legacy story.
(08:24):
And there's so many, I mean, pick any Bible story and And it will show you the
lineage and show you where there's twists and turns based on different generations.
Now, the generations that we see almost always, they turn to sinful nature.
It is very human nature in our fallen sinful world that there is,
(08:48):
you know, that one head family member that is following after the Lord and their
descendants start to trickle away.
So I want to bring up kind of this really cool concept that I uncovered studying
this and looking for clues and really looking for different and unique stories biblically.
(09:10):
So have you heard about standing stones?
So there's multiple examples in scripture of God's people building their legacy see in the Bible.
So picture this, back in ancient biblical times, the Israelites had this tradition
of setting up these big stones called standing stones.
(09:34):
Okay, they weren't just rocks. They were giant, giant boulders,
and they were reminders of their promises to God and the key moments in their history.
Now think about how that tradition could apply to us.
Our legacy isn't just about what we leave behind in terms of money or a fancy family name,
(09:58):
but it's building these symbolic standing stones through our lives,
markers that carry our values,
our faith lessons, and the richness we hold inside, all passed down to the next generation.
So there's examples from Genesis 35, we see standing stones in Bethel,
(10:18):
and the 12 tribes in Exodus 24,
right after the giving of the law to Moses and the tablets, then the next day
he woke up and he made these 12 giant standing stones to represent the 12 tribes.
And then the reminder for the Israelites in Joshua 4.21 is another example that you could look up.
(10:43):
So we had, I have to tell this fun side story.
So we had this amazing opportunity to go to one of my favorite bands, Rend Collectives.
Concert on Saturday night. And I love what one of the lines from their song, as for me, reminds us.
(11:07):
It says, when the foundation is firm, the storms don't matter.
Let's say it one more time. When the foundation is firm, the storms don't matter.
Wow. What not only a biblical statement, but applying this to legacy and the
(11:28):
standing stone. So let's talk about these stones for a minute.
So these stones are like huge, right? You can't move a stone.
Let's think about some of the things that we use in our life that maybe are
somewhat symbolic. We don't think of it as much.
So let's go back to the photography concept.
Photos can get lost. Digital photos for sure can get lost. Hard ones can burn in a fire.
(11:53):
You know, prints can be ruined. I have so many people that come to me wanting
me to fix their super ancient, you know, 80 year old photograph.
And it's very hard to do. There are professionals that are great at it, but it is hard to do.
They get lost, they get torn, they get wet, moldy, whatever, you name it.
(12:14):
And they're not Not necessarily. They might last a couple generations,
but do they last forever?
I don't know. I don't know. We haven't had photography around more than a couple hundred years, right?
So I mean, it's not, it's, that's, that's a tough one.
But these standing stones are,
(12:34):
are huge. And what's so significant about it is that they are honestly very
hard to move. They're heavy.
They're very significant. I mean, unless you just really, really wanted,
it's easy to burn a photograph.
It's easy to set a piece of paper on fire.
(12:56):
It's easy to press the delete button. But when's the last time you tried to go move a giant rock?
Now, my husband takes pleasure in this because as he says, he likes doing hard
things and he likes moving heavy things.
Well, okay, babe, why don't you move this really cool rock to my garden space
(13:16):
over here and he'll do it.
But a normal average person is not going to find pleasure in moving stones.
They are firm. They are permanent to a degree.
They are a lot of times kind of one with the earth.
Like they've just made their mold in the earth.
They've pressed in earth and grass and weeds and debris and other grasses have
(13:41):
grown up around the rock, which makes it almost impossible to move by hand.
And you need some sort of leverage or tool or shovel or something else against
it to pry it out of the earth.
Guys, this is how significant these standing stones were.
They were not meant to be moved.
(14:03):
They were not meant to be taken up or carried off or destroyed.
They were meant to stay where they were and to represent something very powerful.
So what if we saw our own family legacy and our own family story as significant as a giant stone.
(14:31):
Does that sound weird? Like what if we were building a foundation?
If the foundation is firm, the storms don't matter.
If we are laying a foundation down that is so incredible and so firm and so
black and white that this is what our family stands for and this is who we are as a family.
(14:55):
And this can't move. This can't be changed.
God has given us this word. This is who we are. This is our identity in Christ as a family unit.
If that is truly how firm the foundation is, then no matter what storm, sinful temptation,
(15:15):
false ideologies, or influences come at your family. It doesn't matter.
The storm just goes up and over it and you're untouched. You're unmoved.
You are still right there.
I just, I love that picture. I love thinking of, gosh, I want to build that kind of family.
(15:38):
I want to build something so strong that it cannot move. the waves,
the wind, nothing is going to toss it around. It's not going to get lost.
It's not going to lose its way. It's going to stay right there.
Matthew 6, 20 through 21 says,
(15:59):
but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not
destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure
is there your heart will be also. so.
I want my treasure to be building a kingdom for my family.
I want to build something here on earth for the time that we have on earth,
(16:24):
but that is kingdom focused and kingdom purposed.
I want to build up my treasures in heaven while still on earth and where the
thieves of this This earth cannot steal because we are building our heart issues.
We're building our faith.
(16:45):
We're building our ability as a family to walk closer together with the Lord.
Are you guys tracking with me? Is this important to you? It's so, so important to me.
The more I mother, the more I parent, the more I feel like I am possibly failing
(17:05):
at it at times, but the more I want to do better.
All right, so I dug through another story, story. And honestly,
I got lost in it because it was so wild what the Lord shows in the Bible for us to see.
So in 2 Chronicles 32 through about 35, you can kind of keep going though,
(17:30):
we see the story focuses on Ezekiel's reign as king of Judah.
There's going to be like a lot of names, and I hesitate even saying all of them.
But what happens, I'll give you a flyby, what happens is that we see the kingdom
(17:51):
given over, the reign passed down from family member to family member to family
member to family member.
And with every changing of the guards, if you will, or changing of the reigning
king, we see a giant shift, whether it's for good or for bad.
(18:11):
And what I think is so significant here and kind of the point I want to drive
home is how easily one generation,
one, one generation can change the course of a family, but in this instance,
also a nation, one generation.
(18:31):
We don't have this kingdom set up like we see in Chronicles.
And so it's not passed down from generation to generation like this.
So it starts in chapter 32, 2 Chronicles, of Ezekiel's reign as king of Judah. I'm sorry, Hezekiah.
(18:53):
Hezekiah leads significant forms to restore worship and strengthen the nation.
So he's like, hey, I am pro-God, pro-worship, let's strengthen the nation.
He fortifies Jerusalem against Assyrian threat.
He's trusting God's protection rather than relying on just military.
(19:18):
He's really putting his trust and his faith in what the Lord can do.
And then things start to happen.
He seeks the prophet Isaiah's counsel and prays earnestly for God to deliver
them from the Assyrian king.
And so then God answers his prayer by sending an angel to strike down the Assyrian
(19:39):
army, me and they saved Jerusalem.
And you're like, yay, this is such a great story.
And then Hezekiah's faith and obedience lead to a time of peace and prosperity in Judah.
And if you like close the book and you're like, all right, I'm done with my
Bible study. That was such a good chapter. Then you come back to 2 Chronicles 33.
And now the chapter focuses on the reign of Manasseh, who at 12 years old becomes
(20:03):
the king and leads Judah into idolatry and evil practices. this is.
However, after being captured and humbled by the Assyrians, he repents and starts seeking God.
So this is actually like one of those redemptive legacy stories.
Like, okay, he came back. He came back to the Lord. He came back around,
leading to his restoration and the removal of idols from Judah.
(20:25):
Okay, so now in verse 21, we switch again.
And now Amon is the son of Manasseh, and he becomes king after his father's death.
So unlike his father's repentant heart.
Amen follows the wicked ways of Manasseh's earlier reign, continuing to leave
Judah into idolatry and evil practices.
(20:47):
His reign's like super, super short. He's assassinated by his own servants and
the people of the land put his son Josiah on the throne.
Chapter 34. I don't know if you're tracking with me. You've got to open up 2
Chronicles and read through this because it's back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth. So you're like, oh, sweet.
This guy's gonna, he's gonna do great. Ah, dang it. His son ruined it again.
(21:10):
Oh, he's gonna do great. Nope, nope, nope, nope.
Oh, he's gonna do great. Yeah, yeah, he did. He came back to the Lord.
That's great. That's great.
Oh, and then his son just totally dropped the ball. I mean, it's like back and
forth the whole way through. So then Josiah becomes king.
Guys, he becomes king at eight years old. Like that's way too much on his shoulders.
He initiates, I don't even know like how this is possible.
(21:33):
But it's like, oh, and he initiates reforms to restore true worship of God and Judah.
And you're like, yay, King Josiah.
He orders the repair of the temple and discovers the book of the law. This is big.
And then upon hearing its contents, Josiah leads the nation in renewing their
(21:55):
covenant with God and purging Judah of idolatry.
So once again, you're like, yes, we got it back. We got it back.
Then chapter 35, Josiah celebrates the Passover following the instructions of the law.
He provides for the priests and Levites. They perform their duties faithfully.
But then even though he's being righteous, Josiah is killed in battle.
(22:17):
And now we go back to like one thing after the other.
So, I mean, these chapters highlight all these different kings in Judah.
Here's some that are disobedient. Here's some that aren't. Okay,
so these chapters are literally like a back and forth yo-yo,
like good, bad, good, bad, good, bad. So what do we learn from this?
(22:39):
Like there's so many takeaways from this.
One, you can just look at our own government structure and say,
you know what, it really can make a huge impact. impact, like between one,
instead of thinking of one king, like with one administration to the next administration.
I mean, we can have like, okay, things are looking up. And then the next administration
(23:00):
comes in and you're like, oh, shoot, we're in trouble again.
And then the next administration comes in. You're like, okay,
okay, we got this. We got this. It's great. It's great. We're in peace times.
All these things are great.
Positive economy, all the things, right? And then four years later. Ah, dang it.
And here we are in 2024. I wasn't even going to go political.
(23:22):
I think we can all agree and reflect on 2 Chronicles that things can change
for the good or for the bad so quickly, so, so quickly.
So what do we do with our own family?
What do we do? How do we make those standing stones in our family so that generations down the line,
(23:44):
we're not giving into idolatry and evil doing and falling away from the Lord,
but we are are continuing a family that is for the Lord.
And when it trickles down our family tree, are our descendants still following our legacy?
Now, clearly it's not about us. Clearly it's not about you and me or my parents
(24:05):
or your parents or our grandparents, but it's about an idea that's far bigger than us.
And it's about this storytelling that we see over and over again,
especially in the Old Testament,
where a father tells his son and his son and his son, and he says,
you have to tell and record these things and tell these stories about creation
(24:27):
and about our God and the God of Abraham.
And here's all of these details, and you have to continue to tell them so they're not forgotten.
Because those ancient Bible characters knew that if you failed to tell the story, it would get lost.
So my question for you and for myself is, are we telling the story?
(24:48):
Are we telling it when we lay down and when we rise?
Are we telling it to our kids every day? Are we talking about Jesus inside of
our walls, inside of our home and our cars when we drive to different things?
Are we telling the story of God's goodness, God's faithfulness,
our testimony to our children?
So we're doing this fun thing in our home and we haven't fully started it yet,
(25:12):
but I want to walk this with you.
So if you guys want to join this journey with me, I think it would be super,
super awesome to do really together as a community.
And I'd love to hear your feedback. I'd love to see you guys actually do this with me.
Okay, so we decided with various things that have been going on,
we've just been greatly inspired to create our own family mission statement.
(25:38):
Now, this is something I've never done before.
We never had one growing up. I know one person that has written one,
and I asked her to share hers with me the other day. So I have one example.
But the thing that I have done a lot of, I have done a lot of branding statements
for different companies. I've done personal mission statements.
My husband's done many mission statements for different companies and organizations across the board.
(26:04):
So here is my personal mission statement. And this is not refined.
This is something I wrote very quickly as a spirit led.
And it was just an introductory, like, here's an overview of my mission statement.
So in every word I breathe, in every step I take, I long to create a legacy that speaks to Jesus.
(26:27):
I desire to write, speak, and create in a way that shines light in a dark world.
I don't want to go with the flow, but instead go against the grain as I am set apart.
May my kids look back and see the work I've done for the kingdom.
But may the Father most importantly say, well done, my good and faithful servant.
(26:51):
So that is an example of a personal mission statement.
And I wrote that last week. And after writing that, I knew that this next episode
had to be about legacy because it was such an important part of my personal mission statement.
That now I need to expand on that and turn that into a family mission statement.
(27:11):
So what we are going to do is get a giant piece of paper, put it in a central location.
And maybe, you know, like craft paper and tape it on the fridge or put it on
your dining room table during the day and let the kids and all of us write down
ideas as they come to our hearts and come to our minds.
And the Lord presents ideas to us and convicts us of different things.
(27:36):
And I want to just fill up this page with all sorts of things that we as a family
are on a mission together to accomplish.
And it can be in list form.
It could be bullet points. It could just be words. I mean, you guys could do
it however you wanted. It could be in a paragraph.
It could be like a story. It could be different graphics or pictures or a painting
(27:58):
with words I mean, it really could look however you want, but I think this is so important.
I want to build a standing stone with my family.
I want to create words that are not just words on a page, but that are words
from each of our hearts to each other that we actually refer to and we look at.
(28:21):
And when we are breaking that mission, we pull each other toward it again.
Notice I said pull each other toward it and not condemn and not point fingers,
but pull each other back into the fold, back into the mission.
So if there's a company that is going off course of what their mission looks
like, the leadership, if the leadership is running properly, is going to correct the.
(28:45):
They're going to notice what the company is failing at. And they're going to
say, hey, well, hold on. This is not one of our key values.
This is one of our key values. And we need to stick to that.
This is how we run this here.
This is how this business was founded. And we need to stay on course.
When the foundation is firm, the storms don't matter.
(29:09):
There's nothing in the lyrics, nothing in the Bible that says the storms won't come.
It's just that they won't matter. Can they be hard?
Yeah. Can they maybe break away a little bit? Sure.
Maybe erode a little bit of your stone, but it's not going to destroy it.
It's still going to be there.
So guys, I am super excited to challenge you and my own family to do this exercise.
(29:33):
And I can't wait to come back as a follow-up episode where I'm probably going
to bring on my husband with me and we're going to share our family statement
and our family mission statement, if you will. I'm so excited for the opportunity.
I'm super hopeful that the Lord is going to just give us something really cool
to write down and to really pray over with our family and just come together with that.
(29:55):
And I see more and more so many opportunities where the enemy is trying to break
the family unit apart. heart.
And I think we have to give a bigger effort because our God is bigger.
We have to say, enemy, you have no grounds here. Nothing. You have nowhere to stand.
Get out of our home. Get out of our family unit.
(30:17):
Stop trying to destroy what we have firmly planted because we have a mission
to live out together. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
I would really love to to hear from you. If anyone can leave a review or a like
or a share, it really, really helps get these episodes into more ears and into more homes.
(30:40):
Thank you guys so much for listening. Have a really blessed week and go write
those family mission statements.
This episode was brought to you by Brave Books.
If you're fed up with the woke agenda that you you see at all of the big box
stores and on all of your local shelves, be sure to turn to Brave Books.
(31:02):
They are pro-God, pro-America, pro-family.
And be sure to use my link below in the show notes to get a free book today
when you subscribe as well as 15% off your order.
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Wait, before you go, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and follow us
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Head on over to thetreehousestoryteller.com for more products,
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