What will you leave to your children when you pass from this life? I am sure we have heard this question being thrown around with the expectation that we will answer, “a godly heritage”. As Christians, it is but right that we leave to our children a heritage that is of greater worth than material possessions, namely our faith. To help our children to know the Lord Jesus personally will guide them on the right track to eternal life and towards becoming productive citizens of God's kingdom. We have also heard that we are to give our children a good heritage by leaving them with a good name, which means having a good reputation that our children can be proud of.

There is a third form of heritage that is rarely discussed within Christian circles for fear of being viewed as materialistic, and yet it is a reality that cannot be ignored. It is, in fact, an issue that has sparked conflict and even crimes to be committed against members of the same family. This is the issue of financial heritage.

In the Old Testament, we find that when the people of Israel possessed the Promised Land, they divided up the land and each family was given a portion. This land, along with other possessions, was passed on from one generation to the next. However, prior to the Israelites’ entry into Canaan, God had already instituted the rule governing inheritance. This rule came about when a man named Zelophehad died, leaving no son but five daughters (Numbers 27:1-11). The five daughters approached Moses and appealed that, since their father did not have a son to inherit the property that would rightfully belong to their family, they should be given the right to claim their father's inheri-tance in the Promised Land. The Lord affirmed the appeal of Zelophehad's daughters and made it a law for all Israel. The case of Zelophehad's daughters was later fulfilled when the people of Israel finally possessed the Promised Land and Joshua gave the daughters their rightful share (Joshua 17:3–4).

Because Israel was an agricultural society, what one passes on to the next generation was primarily the land. Other assets were secondary. There were also provisions in the law for the land to stay within the grasp of the family such as during the Jubilee, when the land that had been sold must be returned to the original owner. This was to ensure that no one stayed poor forever; that the next generation need not suffer materially because of the circumstances that affected the father's profitability in agriculture. Still, a wise father is one who is able to take the assets that he has and safely transfer it to his heirs, without ever losing the land to some-one else. Thus, Solomon commented that a good man will leave an inheritance for his children's children.

A Financial Heritage for the Next Generationby Rev. Alexander Uy (Grace Gospel Church)

It seemed that this particular law that God instituted has found its way into our law books. In the Civil Code of the Philippines, one will find sections that state laws regarding the issue of succession, heirs and wills. These laws were set in place, no doubt, to protect the transfer of the estate from the deceased to his family, as well as for certain individuals outside the family circle and institutions to receive benefits from the estate of the deceased as stated in writing.

But the sad thing is many leave this world leaving nothing to their children. Instead, what they leave behind are massive debts, expecting the children to settle them. The reason why people are unable to leave a financial heritage for the next generation is because they are poor stewards of their God-given financial resources. They do not know how to save or invest their money. They do not think about the future of their children but only how they can benefit from it now. Some even have the attitude that it is the children who should provide for them in their old age, which explains why some will have many children. This lays a heavy burden usually on the firstborn who must also provide for the needs of his siblings. Yes, it is biblical that children are to care for their parents in their old age, but it doesn't mean that we are to impose this burden upon them while we do nothing to prepare for our retirement, and put aside a ‘tidy sum’ to help them financially.

While we are not to be obsessed nor in love with money, this doesn't mean that we are to throw caution to the wind when it comes to managing financial resources. No one can bring his wealth to the next life, but what he can do is to give his children a good head start financially.

We must learn to be good stewards of our resources by saving and investing. We can learn how to use different means of making our funds grow such as buying insurance policies with our children as beneficiaries, investing in mutual funds, stocks, or bonds, and buying educational funds to make sure that our children will still be able to go to college even if something bad should happen to us. The important point to remember is that we want to leave our children with enough for them to not only survive but to also thrive. It is equally impor-tant that we teach our children to manage their finances prop-erly so that the money we leave to them will not be wasted but be utilized wisely and even passed on to the next generation.

While leaving material wealth to our children should only be secondary to leaving them a spiritual heritage and a good name, we should not neglect this aspect. A failure to provide for our children, including an inheritance, is not just poor financial stewardship, but also a neglect of one's parental responsibility, of which we will be called to account before God when we face Him.

“A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children.” - Proverbs 13:22a