Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25 ESV

The Bible is written to give us examples for life, but some of them are not good ones, but rather warnings. Recently, my wife and I read about a King named Jehoram. He killed off all his brothers, brought back idol worship and even though it became obvious that he was on a collision course with disaster, he still insisted on his own way. At the end of his short and dismal reign, he died of a terrible disease. Then the scripture ends the account of his days with the statement, “And he died to no one’s regret.” That struck us as both darkly humorous and an awful kind legacy we definitely do not want to leave behind for our children. He lived the opposite of today’s verse. Instead of building his house on a rock, he threw away all the blessings his family had given him and built on the quicksand of his own desires.

Though we usually think Jesus is talking about our individual lives, the term house can also be used to describe an entire family. (as in household). What kind of foundation we have built for our families? The answer to that will not be shown by how we make it through sunny days, but by how we weather storms. Though we may have every privilege handed to us on a silver platter, what will describe our legacy is whether we put our trust in Jesus and His words or we have decided to do our own thing. If we will stand together for God, no matter what comes, rather than, ““They died to no one’s regret.” May our children be able to say, “We know they are with Jesus, because they lived for Him, and we can’t wait to see them in Heaven!”