Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 564 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Values – The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 564 of our trek, and we are hiking a series of trails called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack.

Each Monday for a total of 20 weeks we will explore a different tool that is needed to motivate and equip parents and grandparents to train their children and grandchildren to be successful on their trek of life. If you don’t have children or grandchildren of your own, use these tools to train others that you do influence. Today the 11^th tool from Gramps’ Backpack is Values.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. When this episode originally airs, I will be back in Arizona working on our construction project. We have finished up completely on the first six townhomes, and they are on the market. We are also nearly complete with the second six. If sales are strong, the funding group will move forward with the next two pods of six units each. There are a lot of details in finalizing the buildings, and it always takes longer and costs more than expected.

It is our desire to bring value to both the funding group and the ultimate purchasers of the townhomes. As parents and grandparents, we should bring value to those whom we impact with our lives. To bring value, our lives must be built on a solid foundation of values which are driven by our moral code and integrity. So the tool that we will explore today is…

Values

Every parent and grandparent needs to articulate and demonstrate a clearly defined set of values. That set of values must be firmly rooted in a moral code. The best and most complete moral code is found in God’s Word. We should love to live and stand firm on that foundation. Psalms 119:47 reads, “How I delight in your commands! How I love them!”

Every day the influences of society try to shape your values. Society wants you to focus on the distractions and temptations of our troubled 21^st century world. Society’s value system is far different from God’s value system. If you are wise, you will pay more attention to the things that distract you from His precepts.

When God’s values are woven into the very fabric of your life, they become your values, and then you share in His abundance of peace. If you adopt a worldview that is contrary to God precepts you are opening yourself up to making unwise and unhealthy choices.

You live in a world that is filled with countless opportunities to make some very unwise choices. The common worldview with its political correction cries out, “Worship me with your time, your money, your energy, and your thoughts,” but God commands otherwise. He commands you to worship Him and adore Him alone. Everything else must be secondary.

To experience God’s peace and blessings and then teach them to others, you must build your life and indeed your entire value system on His foundation, which is the Bible.

Teaching a Biblically based value system to your children, grandchildren, and others that you impact is paramount. For a society to function properly, the family unit must be solid. God, through His prophet Isaiah, tells us in 48:18, “Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.” 

If you want to be proactive in the way you live your life. If you want to influence your life’s direction. If you want your life to exhibit the qualities you find desirable. If you want to live with integrity…then you need to know what your values are. You need to embrace them and practice them every day.

Sadly, most family problems, whether they are relational or financial, are seldom the real problem. They are often a symptom of a weak or non-existent value system.

God gives us this pattern of values in Deuteronomy 11:18-21, “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.” 

God’s Word is the guide book for which you must establish your value system and then be able to show and teach them to others Joshua 1:8, “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”

With these thoughts in mind, we will conclude our trek for today and close Gramps’ backpack. Before I do, I will pass the tool of values onto you. Once you have this tool in your backpack, it is up to you to establish a life with a strong foundation of values. Once you have accomplished that you then need to teach and train your children, grandchildren, and everyone you impact why those values are so necessary for your life and should be in theirs. When you possess a solid foundation of values, regardless of any difficult circumstances, you can have a life that is both rich and satisfying.

Next Monday we will investigate the 12^th tool in Gramps’ backpack, which is Prayer. On tomorrow’s trek, we will explore another wisdom quote. This 3-minute wisdom supplement will assist you in becoming healthy, wealthy and wise each day. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe through iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!