Week 2: Spiritual Heritage

Inspirational Ideas / Thoughts to add to your journey(please add more via comments!):

SCRIPTURE RE. SPIRITUAL HERITAGE

Deut 6: 5-9
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Genesis 17:6-8
6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Exodus 20:5-7
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

IDEAS

Interview a family member (the older the better) about their spiritual upbringing.

Make a Spiritual Family Tree - tracking the believers in your family as far back as you can.

Journal about any of these questions. Consider what visual images come to mind and make note of that:

What is your Spiritual legacy? What was the faith of your forefathers and how has that impacted you. This may require some interviewing of relatives – by all means, do so!

Growing up in Christ
Were you raised in a Christian home? How were you taught or not taught about God? How was your faith or lack of faith, incorporated into your childhood? Did anything memorable happen in your childhood that stands out, and how did faith play a part in it? After high school, did you keep developing your faith on your own or was this where you first discovered God as part of your life? Who was the person who influenced your life the most in your belief in God when you were growing up?

Religious Holidays
What were the spiritual holiday traditions you experienced growing up? Consider Advent & Christmas, Lent, Holy Week & Easter, etc.

Offer a tribute to a parent, in-law, relative or other person who has been influential in your spiritual life.

Record the spiritual meaning of the names of your predecessors. Was anyone named after someone else to honor them? Tell each family member’s story. Proverbs 22:1 or Ecclesiastes. 16:3 would be good verses to include on a Name page.