Ray and Jani Ortlund looked at God’s bias toward blessing, and they concluded that if “back in Deuteronomy, God banned certain tribes and groups ‘to the tenth generation,’ how might the how-much-more heart of God bless our family, and your family, To the Tenth Generation.“

This thought changed the way they prayed for their family, and, doing the math, they realized that their prayers were reaching two hundred years into the future and could impact as many as 55,000 family descendants. That’s only ten thousand shy of the population of Portland—Maine’s largest city.

According to the Ortlunds, trusting God for a grace-oriented marriage may be the most powerful thing we can do to influence our family’s future because a committed marriage is a vivid picture of the gospel love story.

The biblical record demonstrates that God is prone to selecting ordinary people to put his glory on display. By treasuring God’s word and treasuring one another an unremarkable family will, nonetheless, manage to make a mark.

Families with a “tenth gen” impact may be ordinary, but they are not isolated. Being deeply rooted in a local church takes the sting off any rejection a believer may experience from the prevailing culture. Sticking with our fellow Christians requires a sinewy determination to forgive, to serve, to get along, and to suffer well—all biblical commands as well as sound habits for living.

A lot of books about the family read like heavy-duty instruction manuals and they inspire hopelessness. To the Tenth Generation takes a long view and emphasizes the importance of simple faithfulness, walking in the fear of the Lord as we welcome our children and our grandchildren to walk alongside us, fueled by the Spirit and cherished by grace.

I love this book! Ray and Jani Ortlund write conversationally and yet bring in such rich deep scriptural truths. I don't agree with all the details of some of their practical advice but I enjoyed the examples and would be able to build off of them in the future. They bring such hope and an ease to parenting and having a family.

This book is truly one of a kind, written by Ray & Jani Ortlund, a seasoned Christian couple with over 50 years of experience. Ray and Jani teach us how to pray for our families, extending blessings even unto the 10th generation. As I read, I was deeply moved by the way they illuminated scripture, revealing truths I had never seen before. I found myself in tears, passionately speaking these prayers over my own family. Overall, I am profoundly grateful to NetGalley for this opportunity and highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to intercede for their families for generations to come.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.

Things that I really appreciated:

#1: The constant reminders of how God's plans are bigger than anything we can imagine.
#2: The emphasis on how God's covenant continues through a multitude of generations.
#3: The emphasis on how our marriages are (should be) a picture of God's plan for the church.
#4: The emphasis on what the aromas of our home life/home culture should be as we reflect the covenant that the Lord has been faithful to keep.
#5: The reflections shared by the Ortlund (grown) children throughout the book on how they remember their childhood home life.

If you are brand-new to learning about covenant theology and some of it's practical implications in home and family life, this would be a great starting point. I didn't agree with everything in the book- a few things here and there had me raising an eyebrow (the recommendation of using the Jesus Storybook Bible, for instance), but in general, this was a nice, light read about God's covenant to the generations of those who follow Christ and how we reflect that covenant in our home life and home relationships.

Disclaimer: I was given an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

There is an ancient Chinese saying: "富不過三代." In other words, the wealth or the family's material well-being will not last beyond three generations. If we look at statistics among businesses founded by Chinese families, this seems to be largely true. For many Christian parents, one of the major concerns of faith is whether their faith can be passed on successfully to future generations. Each generation has its own challenges to overcome. What about faith or faith matters? Will it falter by the third generation? As far as the Christian faith is concerned, faith is a gift to be passed down from generation to generation. Using Deuteronomy 23:2-3 as an inspirational springboard, authors Ray and Jani Ortlund believe that God will bless families with every spiritual blessing from one generation to the next. We just need to join God in this holy endeavor. With this in mind, they help us journey through the perspectives of marriage, family, parenting, and grandparenting. Written in three parts, the authors point out ways to share the faith in the family, in our homes, and for many future generations. They call this book an "investment proposal." Part One begins with a call to think beyond our own shells. "Bigger thoughts grow bigger faith" is the mantra. Calling us to keep following Jesus and to use our lives as examples for our descendants, they believe that as long as we live our lives faithfully for God while we can, God can use our lives and legacies to form future generations. God uses us as channels of influence. They pay particular attention to marriages because our children pattern their lives after what they see in their parents.

Part Two looks at how we can make our home a "foretaste of heaven." This means keeping the Word of God central in the family. It means treasuring one another in care and love. It means modeling "gospel culture" in a way that points our children back to God. With regard to parenting, the authors list down 8 insights on how we can point our children toward spiritual truth in God. They also allocate a chapter to show us how we can influence our extended families and Church. Regarding the latter, they provide some interesting ideas on making Church special in our hearts and homes.

Part Three helps us visualize what we can do for our grandchildren's generation and beyond. From boisterous family gatherings to quiet prayers, there are many subtle acts that we can adopt to influence future generations. Simple things like celebrating special occasions like birthdays to faithfully praying for each of our loved ones could mean a lot. Some of the most touching moments some from the feedback received from grandchildren about what influences them most in their growing years. The last two chapters address some potentially difficult issues such as dealing with an imperfect family and how we can move forward even when family feels like a failure. The last chapter on Ten Truths is worth the price of the book.

My Thoughts
Let me offer three thoughts on this book. First, the all-important core message that deserves to be reiterated: We exist not for ourselves. We live for God and our lives should reflect faith in God for our children and descendants. Faith in God is not just believing. It is sharing the gospel truth through our teachings and our living. For many of us, a large part of our lives center around learning and practicing our faith in order to grow spiritually. We read the Bible, books on biblical truth, and various resources on Christian living. We learn from our mentors. We interact with fellow Christians through Bible studies, Church activities, and Sunday School. There will come a point in which we need to ask ourselves: How much more learning must we do? How much more do we need to grow spiritually? What are we to do with the spiritual truths we have benefitted from? The definite message is that these are not meant to be stored up in our heads or our physical libraries. They are meant to be shared widely. The authors consistently remind us to live our faith with the future generations in mind. This is called generational stewardship in the hope that the lives that we now live will be an example of faith for others to follow.

Second, we need an intentional plan for sharing the gospel culture. The authors give us a three-phased approach, first with ourselves followed by our families, and finally to our extended circles of influence. This parallels our own life stages as well. When we are younger, we can learn and accumulate knowledge. As parents, we teach our children while they are still young. Once our children have grown up, they are pretty much on their own. Faith becomes something that is more modeling rather than teaching. At each stage from marriage to parenting, and from parenting to grand-parenting, we read about different faith strategies. All of them are connected back to biblical truth. The conclusion of the Ten Truths to Keep gives us a concise summary of what strategies are essential at various stages of life. We will need to customize our own plans for our loved ones.

Third, the importance of prayer. I notice that as the chapters progress, there is a greater emphasis on prayer. From the initial chapters on what we can do, the authors end with a sense of letting God do the rest. We can sow, water, and till, but only the Lord can give the increase. The plant metaphor is relevant here. We sow, water, and prepare our young ones as best as we can. After that, we can only go to the Lord in prayer for the rest of their lives. This is especially so because few of us can see what happens beyond the third generation. In prayer, we look to God who could see all the way to the tenth generation and the eternal future.

Anyone who has a burden for sharing the gospel to our families and loved ones should seriously pick up this book.

Ray Ortlund is president of Renewal Ministries and a founding member of The Council of the Gospel Coalition. He established Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and upon retirement was named “Pastor to Pastors.” Among his other books are The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ and Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel. His PhD is from The University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Jani Ortlund, vice president of Renewal Ministries, hosts the “He Restores My Soul” podcast and is the author of numerous books. Serving Christ through writing, speaking, and discipling is her chief passion in life. She and Ray, married more than fifty years, have four married children and (as “Bapa” and “Mayme”) have fifteen grandchildren.
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of B&H Publishing via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

Plenty of helpful books with knowledge about parenting are available to us today, but what sets this new release apart for me is the perspective that the choices we make for how to guide our families will trickle down through many generations to come. As parents, what we do in our homes right now has the potential to bless the future generations we will never meet in our time on this earth. I’m thankful to the Ortlund family for both the godly wisdom found here and the practical applications and encouragement to lead our family well!

While reading this book, I kept thinking of my parents faith. Their strong faith in God and how they shaped our lives through the Bible.
I felt honoured reading this book. It’s like reading Ortlund’s legacy. Ray and Jane put in wonderful words and stories what it meant to them to raise children in christian faith.
With biblical wisdom, practical advices, short memories from children, this book fills your soul with fresh water.
Loved it!

“No one else can treasure your children as meaningfully as you.

One reason God allows us parents to face insurmountable challenges todays: it is for our children’s sake.

God gave you your precious family to play a crucial role in his strategy for the redemption of the world.

Your devotion to Jesus is the absolute, number-one, most valuable inheritance you can pass down to your family.

The destiny of nations lies far more in the hands of women- the mothers - than in the possessors of power.”

What a timely encouraging read for me to read. Recently, I lost my last grandparent (though thankfully, he died peacefully at home and lived a full 95 years) living on earth. While reading this book, To the Tenth Generation: God’s Heart for Your Family, Far into the Future by Ray and Jani Ortlund, every time it mentioned the generation to generation, it reminded me of his faith. This helps remind me of my responsibility and gives me the encouragement to keep going.

If you like me sometimes, you are not sure what that looks like or how to do it. This book gives helpful information and Biblical scripture to help you on your way to raising the next generation. This book is written to help you know your purpose and your families purpose from God. Encouraging you to pray for future generations, the importance of your marriage, parenting in today’s culture, and what to do in challenging times and what we can do to help future generations.

Some of my highlights:

You can’t control the future, but you can invest in it.
You can not give to your children any life you do not have living within yourself.
Hands down, the greatest gift you can pass along to your family is your own devotion to Jesus.
In an angry world where everyone is skating on thin ice, a gospel-culture family is a safe haven.
It takes moment by moment sacrifice. But a truly Christian home is so worth it.
I believed God calls us to certain standards that weren’t necessarily the standards of other believers.
When children are allowed to disobey their parents, they are being taught to disobey God too.
Real obedience means following Christ even when His path is scary, unpopular, or hard.
You are never wrong to expect of a church a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Real repentance is not just a momentary regret but a whole lifestyle adjustment.
We must beware of cheapening forgiveness
“His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation” Luke 1:50