“So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings^[a] we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. 2 Thessalonians 2:15

Introduction

The month of October in the Turks and Caicos Islands is officially referred to as Heritage Month and Columbus Day was renamed to Heritage National Day. It was a great initiative to use this month to reflect on where came from to where we are now. Let us be thankful and appreciative of our heritage.

As part of our heritage, we learned about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We were in church multiple times on Sundays. We feared God and we believed in God. We believed in the definition of marriage between a man and a woman. We believed in not spearing the rod on children. We believed in respecting people. We believed in caring and loving each other. However, as soon as the country began to prosper, many of us became rich and many of us received tertiary education, our beliefs changed and our confidence was no longer in God but in the things we acquired. We stopped going to church. Some of us no longer believe that the God we serve exists.

I challenge all of us not to forget out Godly Heritage. I believe that we are in the state we are in now because we turned our backs on God. We believe the politicians can help us but trust me, only God can help so let us remember our Godly Heritage

Pass Godly Heritage from generation to generation

Many of us had a rough life growing up. Some of us did not have much growing up. Some of us did not have shoes and walk the streets barefooted. We do not want our children to experience what we experience and so we worked hard to ensure that they are better off than what we were. While this is good, if there is one thing you want to pass from generation to generation is our Godly Heritage. Continue to pray with your family. Have devotions at least once a week. Go to church as often as possible. Practice love and forgiveness and lead by an example so that you generation can follow you. While I love the modern gospel music, remember and sing the songs from the Sankey and Hymn books. They are so powerful and can be a great sources of encouragement.

Had it not been for some of parents and grandparents passing their godly heritage onto us, I don’t know where some of us would have been today.  Thank God for the Godly Heritage. Paul reminds of the faith he got from his grandmother in 2 Timothy 1:5 “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”

Conclusion

I believe that once we adhere to our godly heritage and pass it onto our generation, they will always remember their Godly Heritage. They may strayed from it but because they were grounded in the word, it becomes part of their subconscious mind, they will think twice before they do something that is contrary to the word of God. I also believe they will eventually return to the spiritual heritage that was passed onto them. I conclude with the verse that I started off from 2 Thessalonians 2:15 “So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings, we passed on to you whether by word of mouth or by letter.”