What are we passing to the next generation? Is it merely better economic standards, educational opportunities, and endless entertainment options? What if a better life isn’t the best? God calls us to invest in the next generation…so that they don’t merely survive life, but surrender to the wonder and majesty of God.
Open: Describe a tradition that you have in your family? How long has this tradition existed? What do you like most about the tradition?
Read: Judges 1-2; Deuteronomy 6:1-15
Discuss:
1. What do you find most different about the next generation? How did the previous generation find your generation unique? What makes generational transfer so difficult?
2. Describe the context of Judges 1-2: Joshua exhorts the people of Israel to remember God. But Judges 2 says that the next generation did not follow God. How is there a level of responsibility placed upon the previous generation to lead the next generation spiritually? In what ways did Israel fail to do this?
3. Deuteronomy 6 describes a process for leading and training the next generation. List some of the ways we are urged to engage the next generation: In what ways do we complicate this? Have you ever heard the expression, “I miss the good ‘ole days”? While true, how can this complicate our impact to the next generation?
4. How important is it to share stories of God’s faithfulness? How do you see a deficiency of sharing God’s faithfulness in Christianity today? What are some examples from your story that would be important to pass to the next generation?
5. When you consider the next generation, what do you see us passing onto them? Spend some time considering how you are leading and investing in the next generation. What are some ways you can encourage, exhort and cheer for them?
Pray: No matter your age, pray that you would be an encouragement and blessing to the next generation. Ask God to give you someone from the next generation to encourage, exhort and cheer. Read:
Memorize/Meditate: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:4-7
