The Next Gens: Paying It Backward

One of God’s most profound gifts to families is the opportunity to grow in faith together across generations. We often think of parents teaching children and grandparents passing down wisdom—but just as often, God uses the simple, unguarded moments of childhood to teach the adults who love them.

Jesus told us that unless we become like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. There is something in their honesty, humility, and dependence that reflects the posture God desires in all of us.

In this touching reflection, we see how a simple interaction between a father and his young daughter reveals a powerful spiritual truth—one that speaks not only to parenting, but to our own daily walk with our heavenly Father.

I imagined that I would immediately love and be ready to dote upon my grandchildren. Perhaps I might even have some wisdom to share. What I didn’t expect was that God would continue to teach me lessons through their lives. My own parenting years were convicting  that way though, so I really shouldn’t have been blindsided!

Dad and daughter were enjoying “art” time together as the sweet 2 year old girl was using markers. After giving her a five minute notice that the markers would need to be put away, he told her now was the time to put the caps on and finish drawing. To his surprise, she resisted his direction. And for further emphasis, she threw a marker on the floor!

“Hayden, now you need to pick the marker up.”  She showed no movement to cooperate.

“Remember our family rule #1: Obey mom and dad. Hayden, are you choosing to disobey Dad?”

“Choose to disobey”, she replied.

It’s pretty unsettling to have your young child flat-out say that they are choosing to disobey you! Even though at this age she often parroted the words of adults (especially the emphatic ones!), he was pretty sure she understood what she was saying.

“Hayden, do you want Dad to help you obey?”

Her response now: “Help obey”.

And together they finished the clean-up task.

How like this we can be with our heavenly Father! Oh, I rarely have said out loud, or even quietly acknowledged, that I was absolutely – right then and there - choosing to disobey my God. But functionally, that’s what was happening as I took my eyes off of God, and set my heart and mind to please myself and to pursue my own desires.

My disobedience could look like a thousand different things: It could be Jonah-like turning in the opposite direction of where I clearly heard God send me, delayed obedience, partial obedience, overspending, gluttony, persistent pusillanimity, or even silence when I know I should speak. All of this breaks my heart when I think of how Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey me.”  I know I am fully loved, and I do want to live a life that loves my God back with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength.

Many times, I despair of my failings and inability to follow through, even on my prayerful, godly intentions. Our heavenly Father is so abundantly gracious and merciful, however. Those are the times when, if I listen closely enough, I can hear the reminder that He never intended for me to accomplish any of this on my own.  “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” John 15:5   And,  “The excellence of the power is of God, not of us.”  2 Corinthians 4:7

This utter and continuous dependence is clearly highlighted throughout the Bible. I can rely on these promises too:

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire to and the power to do what pleases Him.”

Philippians 2:13 (NLT)

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.”  Ephesians 3:16 (NLT)

So, since we are to come to Him as little children, I can join in with little Hayden and cry out, “Help obey”.  That request would bring a smile to many fathers, but when it is a prayer directed to the God who rules over the affairs of man, who holds our very breath in His hands and owns all of our ways (Daniel 2:28 and 5:23), who knows our frame and that we are dust (Psalm 103: 14), I can be certain that help is already divinely supplied.

From the editor:  This story reminds us that faith is not merely taught—it is lived, modeled, and continually learned. As parents and grandparents, we have the sacred privilege of guiding the next generation toward Christ. Yet even as we teach them to obey, trust, and depend on God, He is teaching us to do the same.

Perhaps one of the most honest and powerful prayers we can ever pray is simply: “Help me obey.”

This is the heart posture we want to cultivate in our families—not perfection, but dependence. When children learn that obedience flows from love, and when adults model humble reliance on God’s strength rather than their own, faith becomes something real, living, and enduring.

At Keeping The Faith, our prayer is that every generation—children, parents, and grandparents alike—will grow together in this humble dependence on the Lord, trusting that He is always faithful to supply both the desire and the power to follow Him.

Because when one generation learns to say, “Help me obey,” they are not only growing in faith themselves—they are paying it backward, investing in the generations still to come.