“We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD... that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children.”
The Tree
This psalm describes a deliberate chain of transmission, one generation showing the next, so that children not yet born will someday arise and declare the same truths to their own children. Faithful parenting, in this picture, is never only about the child directly in front of you. It is one link in a much longer chain.
Notice we will not hide them, a statement of deliberate choice, not passive hope. Truths worth passing on do not survive by accident or by simply being generally true somewhere in the culture. They survive because someone, deliberately, chose not to hide them, actively showing what could have easily remained unspoken.
This carries real weight for whatever you are or are not actively passing on right now. The generation to come is depending, in part, on what you choose to show rather than hide today, not because you are the only link in the chain, but because you are a genuinely necessary one, however small your own portion feels.
Consider today what you might be quietly hiding through simple omission, not necessarily through deliberate silence, but through simply not getting around to showing it. Choose today, deliberately, to show one true thing worth an entire generation still unborn eventually knowing.
Tend the Tree
- Name one truth about God you have not yet deliberately shown your children.
- Show it today, specifically, rather than assuming it will come up eventually on its own.
- Consider the generation to come, not only the child directly in front of you today.
Prayer
Lord, let me not hide what the next generation needs to know. Give me courage today to show, deliberately, what could easily go unspoken instead. Amen.
Carry this today
You are one link in a chain reaching further than you can see.