Shaping The Next Generation

I was reading an article on how to understand Millennials and Gen Z (born between 1980-2012). This article said, “You can learn a lot about a generation by looking at the generation of parents that raised them.” In a book called A Generation at Risk, a 20-year longitudinal study revealed how parents play a major role in shaping their children's personalities, attitudes, values, self-concept, social skills, and lifestyles. Children will carry these traits with them into adulthood and these values will be transferred to the next generation. This study also found that despite one's problematic family background a child could, with the right type of investment over time, live very healthy and fulfilling lives as adults.

I believe that in this day and age that the investment that godly moms and dads, friends, neighbors, and the church make in children, teens, and young adults can play a major role in positively shaping the next generation. This brings us to today’s passage.

2 Tim 1: 1-12

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 to Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6 For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, 10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher. 12 For this reason I also suffer these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to protect what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

Timothy’s faith was shaped by his:

Mother & Grandmother

Mentors

Let’s look at what the passage reveals about:

1. Timothy’s Mother & Grandmother

This letter was written by the apostle Paul to a young man named Timothy, who may have come to the faith when Paul had visited the town of Lystra during his first missionary journey (48 AD). When Paul returned to Lystra on his second missionary journey he heard about this young man Timothy from the other Christians who spoke about his spiritual growth and maturity. My question is: What brought about this incredible growth/spiritual maturity in such a short time? What shaped Timothy’s faith?

Warren Wiersbe said:

Apparently Lois, Timothy’s Jewish grandmother, was the first one in the family who placed her faith in Jesus; then his mother, Eunice, was converted. Timothy’s father was a Greek (Acts 16:1), which indicates that Eunice was not strictly following her Jewish faith. However, Timothy’s mother and grandmother had seen to it that he was taught the OT Scriptures from his youth (2 Tim. 3:15).

We are given some clues about what shaped Timothy’s faith in 2 Timothy and Acts 16. We can observe in this passage that Paul was intimately acquainted with Timothy’s family and had witnessed their sincere faith. The word sincere means: genuine faith, without hypocrisy, not phony, it is a behavior free from hidden agendas or selfish motives. Their faith was a real faith, a true Messianic faith. As a young boy, Timothy most likely heard them pray the Shema every evening from Deut 6:4-5:

Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.