Your Children's Children by SETH GUTHRIE, PASTOR


If someone uses the word “family,” what do you pic- ture? In the West today, we tend to think of family in very limited terms — parents and kids. This is who you’ll find in a typical home, unless the kids are grown and the household now consists of only the married couple.


God’s view of family is much larger than that.


Throughout Scripture, it’s com- mon for His blessings and curs- es to extend to “your children, and your children’s children,” or through a certain number of generations. This demonstrates a truth that we don’t always like to think about: that the lives of our parents, grandparents, and generations before them impact our lives today. In the same way, our lives will impact future generations.


When I was child, I got to


spend a lot of time with my parents and grandparents. Growing up in the country, my father’s parents only lived about two miles away, so we were very close. Anytime one of us wanted to see what the other was up to, we could break out the binoculars and see what was going on.


Since both of my parents


my grandfather had dropped out of school to work full time. He was, in every way, a tough guy.


My own father was the only boy in his immediate


family, with four sisters. His father expected him to work hard in the same ways that he had, but my dad had different desires. He wanted to get a college edu- cation and study the Bible. This caused a rift for many years between the two. My dad worked to pay his way through Nebraska Christian High and Grace College of the Bible (Grace University, as it was known by the time it closed). During these years, my grandfa- ther never went to a single one of my dad’s basketball games, graduations, or other events, he viewed it all as a waste.


Over the years, they healed


Seth, Jennifer, Ezra, and Asher Guthrie. Photo credit: Heather Jameson Photography.


worked, it was normal for me to get picked up from school by my grandparents and spend some time at their house. In this time, I built up a special relationship with them, and looking back I can see ways that the generations before me have shaped who I am today.


My grandfather was an interesting man. He’d


been a Marine, a Silver Gloves boxer and coach, a rodeo cowboy, a farmer, and a country singer. Growing up as the middle child of 15 kids in the heart of the Great Depression, caused him to develop an incredible work ethic and drive to take care of things himself, in whatever way he knew. By the time he was a teenager,


their relationship, demon- strating love and grace to one another. By the time my siblings and I came around, my dad and my grandfather were both heavily involved in everything we did. They cheered us on in every game, they sat through every elementary band concert and told us we did great — they were our biggest fans.


When I spent time with my grandfather, I never saw the tough


guy. I saw a man who would have drawing contests with his grandson, who taught me how to win at checkers, who would endearingly call anyone a “fat- head” if they beat him in cards. I saw a man who loved his family.


My father always demonstrated Godly living to


his kids, as well. As a pastor, he made sure that we understood what the Bible taught. He always worked multiple jobs so that we would be taken care of. He was our coach, our handyman, our teacher. Anytime my dad saw an opportunity to teach us something, or to encourage us to grow, he took it.


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