We just celebrated Father’s Day 2026. God has given me good gifts. I know several good father’s that deserve to be celebrated. Our Heavenly first and foremost, my own husband, my son, my son-in-law and my own dad. He’s deceased now for eleven years, but God always brings dad to my mind every Father’s Day because he was one of the good ones.
I’ve been “recollecting” that’s a term my dad used when he was in his story telling modes. So I’ve been “recollecting”quite a bit this summer. I find myself scrolling through my photos and sharing them with my grandkids. On Father’s Day I shared some photos of my dad. Four of the six grandchildren never knew my dad. I came across this photo of dad’s grave site. For some reason I fixated on the dash -. Why did we ever choose to use that symbol to represent a life? I get it. I know it represents a person’s timeline. A life lived between birth and death, but is it enough? A dash? To symbolize a life worth living and a story worth telling. The dash, it falls way short for me.
What will my dash represent for those I leave behind? The dash (-). I don’t want my life to come down to just a little symbol someone carves into a tombstone. I tease myself. Someone is going to write an epitaph on my tombstone, “Here lies the ham sandwich lady.” I am known for serving Honey Baked Ham Sandwiches at any and all family functions and other get togethers. But seriously, what is my spiritual footprint going to look like for those who come behind? I am in the process of creating a legacy. I want to create an inheritance that goes beyond the temporary.
“For perpetuity God’s ways will be passed down from one generation to the next, even to those not yet born.” Psalm 78:6 TPT
I read that verse recently. I’ve probably read it multiple times before, but this time this verse stopped me. It was a doorpost moment for me. I entered in. I thought through the ages… Through the ages our Christian faith has been passed down from one generation to the next. It’s weathered persecutions and martyrdom. And yet… God! God kept the ember glowing. In perpetuity God’s has caused His ways to survive. And not just survive but to thrive. Think of it. Our faith, my faith, your faith is thousands of years old. From the beginning of time even. Oh we have had our dark days, but God… We have skeletons in our closet. Not so great heroes from the very pages of God’s Word… but God. God wins. And my job is to pass my belief in a loving God who sent His One and Only Son into this world, not to condemn this world but so that this world through Jesus might be saved, I am to pass these words down to the generations, my children, their children, and I’m praying they would pass this faith to their children my great grandchildren. That’s what I want my dash – to mean.
I think of ole Noah. All he did was to say yes. “Yes, I’ll build a boat God. Even though I don’t even know what a boat is.” Yet we still read of his obedience that saved an entire generation even the entire human race.
I think of the children of Israel. The parents, the father’s that painted the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of their homes so that their families and their family lineage would be saved. All because God told Moses this is what was needed to be done. Moses obeyed and passed along God’s message.
I want to make a generational impact like those stories. I want my dash to shape my children’s children’s children. I want their dashes to shape the stories of their next generation. I want to look down the corridor of time and see this faith of believing in THE ONE TRUE GOD AND JESUS CHRIST HIS SON being passed down. I don’t want this Christian belief, this Christ centered life I am now living to land on empty ground. I want my story, my – , to be planted in rich soil so that it can be deposited into a people not yet born.
“After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works that He had done for Israel. And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.”
Judges 2:10-11 BSB
That verse is alarming for me. It should stand as a warning to all who have put their faith in our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Don’t let this be said of my generation please Lord.
I choose life.
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, and that you may love the Lord your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.””
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 BSB
Choose life!
“I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced is in you as well.”
2 Timothy 1:5 BSB
At one point in my life I thought I was more like the grandmother Tala in Moana, you know LaLa instead of Tala. But now I want to be a grandmother Lois for my grandchildren.
That’s my dash (-).