Day 564 – Values – The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack

Wisdom-Trek

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy Welcome to Day 564 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom Values - The Tools in Gramps' Backpack Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 564 of our trek, and we are hiking a series of trails called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack. Each Monday for a total of 20 weeks we will explore a different tool that is needed to motivate and equip parents and grandparents to train their children and grandchildren to be successful on their trek of life. If you don’t have children or grandchildren of your own, use these tools to train others that you do influence. Today the 11th tool from Gramps’ Backpack is Values. We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. When this episode originally airs, I will be back in Arizona working on our construction project. We have finished up completely on the first six townhomes, and they are on the market. We are also nearly complete with the second six. If sales are strong, the funding group will move forward with the next two pods of six units each. There are a lot of details in finalizing the buildings, and it always takes longer and costs more than expected. It is our desire to bring value to both the funding group and the ultimate purchasers of the townhomes. As parents and grandparents, we should bring value to those whom we impact with our lives. To bring value, our lives must be built on a solid foundation of values which are driven by our moral code and integrity. So the tool that we will explore today is… Values Every parent and grandparent needs to articulate and demonstrate a clearly defined set of values. That set of values must be firmly rooted in a moral code. The best and most complete moral code is found in God’s Word. We should love to live and stand firm on that foundation. Psalms 119:47 reads, "How I delight in your commands! How I love them!" Every day the influences of society try to shape your values. Society wants you to focus on the distractions and temptations of our troubled 21st century world. Society’s value system is far different from God’s value system. If you are wise, you will pay more attention to the things that distract you from His precepts. When God’s values are woven into the very fabric of your life, they become your values, and then you share in His abundance of peace. If you adopt a worldview that is contrary to God precepts you are opening yourself up to making unwise and unhealthy choices. You live in a world that is filled with countless opportunities to make some very unwise choices. The common worldview with its political correction cries out, “Worship me with your time, your money, your energy, and your thoughts,” but God commands otherwise. He commands you to worship Him and adore Him alone. Everything else must be secondary. To experience God’s peace and blessings and then teach them to others, you must build your life and indeed your entire value system on His foundation, which is the Bible. Teaching a Biblically based value system to your children, grandchildren, and others that you impact is paramount. For a society to function properly, the family unit must be solid. God, through His prophet Isaiah, tells us in 48:18, "Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea." If you want to be proactive in the way you live your life. If you want to influence your life’s direction. If you want your life to exhibit the qualities you find desirable. If you want to live with integrity…then you need to know what your values are. You need to embrace them and practice them every day. Sadly, most family problems, whether they are relational or financial, are seldom the real problem. They are often a symptom of a weak or non-existent value...