Children

... we will not hide from their children. 

 - From Psalm 78

Everything is duty to the elders. Or to the ancients. 

The Psalmist doesn't even view the children of his time, as his own children. They are their children. That is . . . they belong to their forbears; our forbears. Our ancestors. 

One of the best ways to pay back our ancients, for the sacrifices they made, is to honor their values, and steward the property and legacies they bequeathed to us. Everything was always about receiving the baton successfully, and passing it on to the next generation. 

We are to see the generations as an extension of our own families. Our extended family is an integral and intimate link that connects us to the past and the future. 

Our placement in history, in the chronological timeline, is essential to our understanding of eternity. 

When you're only focused on yourself, you do not have a sense of your ancestors. You cannot access the future effect of the decisions you make today. 

There is some awareness currently, of something called "The Seventh Generation." This comes from native cultures that would evaluate everything they do in terms of . . . will it benefit our descendants, seven generations from now? 

Tracing my "Darr" surname back . . . I get to Gottieb Durr in Baden-Wurttemberg in modern-day Germany. It is the middle 1700s. He lived only about 40-50 years. His grandson, Adam Darr, was barely known to his grandson, Roscoe Darr, my father's grandfather. Seven generations back, is my grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's father. 

There is no chance of personally knowing someone in your family, that far back. Seven links from me. Seven family members, closely connected. Take out the years in between, and we are more closely connected to them, than we realize. 

My children are the legacy of Gottlieb Durr of 18th Century Germany. He, and everybody between him and me, devoted their lives to building something that ultimately belongs to my daughters. A seventh generation focus helps you regard your children as being, not just the children of your ancestors . . . but the children of God Himself. Your emphasis on past and future generations connects you with eternity. 

We can touch an ethic of native cultures, unspoiled by modernity . . . and begin viewing everything we do, through the prism of the seventh generation back; and the seventh generation forward.