Signatures, Closings, and Spiritual Heritage

Well, we are currently the owners of TWO HOUSES now . . . for just a few more days!? We closed on our house in Carthage and will move in on Friday and Saturday!? We close on our house in Ozark on August 12th at the latest.? Thank you Lord for really working this stuff all out so smoothly!

I was just sitting here processing the whole real estate closing process this morning as it all happened so quickly.? That is pretty amazing all of the forms and signatures. The worst thing is the final several documents that you sign that show how much you are “really” spending on your loan if you just pay the payment the entire period of the loan.? Boy, we need to get on it and apply extra to that principle!

I am finding that my signature (at least the “William” part) is looking WAY too much like my dad’s.? I guess that is the way things are supposed to be.? We are supposed to look and act like our parents aren’t we?? That is the beauty of the creation in Genesis–that we are ALL of the good, and ALL of the bad of our parents.? Makes me really stop and think about the good and bad that I am handing off to the boys.? Wouldn’t it be nice for the “chip(s) off the ol’ block” be just the good stuff?? But that is not the way it works.? God has charged us to teach our kids the faith.? Our heritage is often more “caught” than “taught.”? It reminds me of one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament–Deutoronomy 6

Deuteronomy 6

Love the LORD Your God

1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ^[a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you?a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant?then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

To this day, if you walk into a traditional Jewish household, you will see a little box affixed by the doorframe called a Mezuzah to “write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates.”? We don’t do that as evangelical Christians, but we do pass on a spiritual heritage every single day of our lives.? I pray that as we walk through life, that the Gospel might be written on our hearts so that we might pass on a powerful spritual heritage to our children.? I believe that my dad has passed on much more than just a signature.? I hope that I can do the same to the boys.