The Biblical way to build a legacy & generational wealth

Celebrating 33 + finding the key to building an enduring legacy & generational wealth (it's not what you think!)

Welcome! APL is a newsletter for the woman desiring to build a strong marriage, purposeful life and an enduring family legacy.

I’m turning 33 this weekend, which I honestly can’t even process because in my mind I’m still in my mid-twenties!

I was single for all of my 20’s and within the last three years, I became a wife and a mom (x 2!), so it’s a lot of shifts to navigate.

The beauty of your 30’s is that you’re more established in who you are and what you want out of life, and there is so much freedom in that. But your 30s are also a time of building: a family, a home, a career, etc.

It’s an interesting tension: finding contentment and clarity where you are and in who you are vs. building the life you envision for yourself and your family.

I tend to be a go-getter kind of person, which is great, unless you start to think it’s up to you to make things happen and God’s contribution in the equation diminishes. I can easily get to this place of trusting my own abilities more than God when I start worrying about how we’re going to accomplish all the dreams and goals we have, and there’s this pressure to work harder and do all the things to make it all happen.

But that’s not the Biblical way to build a legacy or generational wealth.

By the way, when I say wealth, I don’t mean “rich” — because generational wealth is about so much more than money, although money is a tool used to build generational wealth. I am not promoting the prosperity gospel here.

“Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning to desist.” -Proverbs 23:4

God led me to Psalm 37 the other morning. I don’t how I missed it before, but it is literally the guide to building generational wealth and an enduring legacy:

(References below from Psalm 37 + my interpretations of these passages)

• Trust in the Lord

• Turn from evil and do good

• Dwell in the land, and enjoy where you are planted right now

• Feed on God’s faithfulness and focus on the blessings in your life today

• Enjoy safe pasture and take refuge in Him (contentment!)

• Take delight in the Lord

• Commit your way to the Lord – make decisions with Him not before Him

• Don’t worry about what others are doing, especially those who claim to get rich fast or do evil to gain wealth (“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” -Proverbs 13:11 and “A faithful man will abound in blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished” - Proverbs 28:20)

• Seek peace

• Put your hope in the Lord, not man

• Be still before the Lord and wait for His timing

• Don’t fret

• Always be generous and lend freely

• Keep God’s law in your heart and meditate on it day and night

• Keep His ways

• Seek wisdom and speak what is wise and just

And here’s the result when you live life like this:

• He will give you the desires of your heart for they align with His desires

• God will act in your life

• He will make your righteousness shine line the dawn

• Those who God blesses will “inherit the land” and dwell in the land forever

• You’ll enjoy peace in abundance

• You’ll spend your days under the Lord’s care

• Your inheritance will endure forever

• He will establish your plans (Proverbs 16:3)

• The Lord will make your steps firm and uphold you with His hand

• You’ll never be forsaken

• Your children will never beg for bread

• Your children will be a blessing

• A future awaits you when you seek peace

• Salvation

• He will be a stronghold for you in times of trouble

• The Lord Himself will help you

Do you see the threads of legacy and generational wealth in there?!

At the heart of it is this: be still, trust God and commit all your dreams and desire to Him, and He will give you and your children wisdom to gain wealth (Deut. 8:18) an enduring inheritance (in the Old Testament, the way God blessed His people over and over is by giving them land from which to provide for their families and amass wealth + land ownership has always been a cornerstone of wealth building).  

But to be still before God is not to be inactive; it means to still our minds and embrace the peace He gives, even as we work willingly with our hands to steward and grow what God has entrusted to us. It’s building your dreams from a place of abundance and contentment, not from a place of scarcity, envy, or greed.

God promises to do His part if we do ours. Because you have everything you need do what God has called you to do in the place where He has put you.

“And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty leftover to share with others.” -2 Corinthians 9:8 (NLT)

In the words of Paul David Tripp: “God promises to provide, but he calls us to labor, pray and give…. God has promised to supply and empower; your job is to follow Him by faith where you live every day.”

We plant the seeds of legacy in faith and God gives the increase. When we do what we can do, God does what we cannot.

I experienced this the other day when I was struggling to figure something out. I kept coming up with ideas, but all my ideas fell flat and didn’t feel quite right. So, I prayed for God to give me wisdom, and that afternoon, the puzzle pieces finally clicked in my mind and God showed me a vision for the next steps in building our family legacy.

“Could it be that simple?”, I wondered.

I was listening to a podcast earlier this week where a woman shared her story of starting an online store. Her first day, she sold out of the product she created. But in the days after that, she kept trying but there were no more sales. So, she wanted to give up.

But then she heard God asking her: “Alison, I showed you how to do this. How can you stop? I showed you the possibilities.”

I truly believe God speaks to us in all sorts of ways: primarily through His word, but also through other people, whether it’s a friend, a mentor, a sermon, a podcast, or a post online. He finds ways to keep teaching us little by little.

And that line in that podcast? It felt like the continuation of what God is teaching my husband and I about how to build an enduring legacy and generational wealth.

I’m realizing lately that even though my mind sometimes tells me our dreams are too big and impossible, when I take God at His word to still my mind in Him and commit our dreams to Him, I realize we’re dreaming small – that God can do infinitely more for those who walk with Him; that this season is God showing us the possibilities of what it’s like to trust His timing and rest in Him.

So, as I go into another year of life, I want to live out Psalm 37 with my family and follow God’s way of building an enduring legacy and generational wealth, because it truly is quite simple:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” -Matthew 6:33

Until next time,

YPS