The study of where you came from is important.  Many people have researched their family lineage to find famous people or even royalty.  It is vital to know where you came from.  But rarely is someone more proud of where they came from then by what they are leaving behind.

There are some people mentioned in the Bible that are notarized by their faith.  Jacob, even though he was the younger son, strove to steal the family blessing from his brother Esau.  Rahab the harlot did not die in Jericho like all of her other neighbors because of her faith.  Ruth married Boaz, her kinsmen because of her faithfulness and favor with God.

What is so notable about these 3 people is that they all found themselves into the lineage of Jesus Christ.  Sure Jacob was the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, but even more significant is that Jesus Christ was a descendent of the bloodline of Jacob.  Too often we put the emphasis on where we are from rather than what we are leaving behind.

The second you become a parent, at least a good one, everything changes.  You no longer live for you, but rather you live for your children.  You want to leave them better off than you were.  You want them to be more successful than you are.  You want them to be happier and make less mistakes than you did.  It is natural to want to leave more behind you than what came before you.

The same goes for our spiritual walks.  As far as who is before you, all that matters is that you are a child of God.  That is all the lineage you need.  The bigger question is what are you leaving behind?  Who are you adding to your family tree?  What life have you helped to reproduce in a spiritual sense?  All around us there are opportunities to leave behind a greater lineage than what went before us.  By faith, begin to invest your life into the life of others and watch your life begin to blossom.