On the question of posterity

 On his posterity 

 

1)      Genesis 26:4 God promised Abraham a great posterity through his son Isaac.

a)       I have been given the same promise in my patriarchal blessing. I was blessed with a large righteous posterity. At the time of the blessing, I was unaware that I was personally infertile. I am sure God was aware of my infertility. I have often asked myself what God sees as my posterity. When I was courting my wife, she informed me of her possible infertility. I told her that her possible infertility had no bearing on my choice to marry her. We would work out those details after we married. When we discovered my infertility, we chose to find joy in raising nieces and nephews while we waited for our children to come. This brought much happiness into our relationship. I have since learned my posterity includes all of those I have led to Christ. Thankfully we have adopted two beautiful children and helped her mom to raise two additional grandchildren.

 

What is in posterity, how do I define my posterity?

If posterity are the children of the body? Why did God promise in my Patriarchal Blessing a large righteous posterity if he knew I was not able to create sperm cells? Posterity for me must be something besides children of the body.

My wife and I have adopted two children and we are expecting our first grandchild in the spring. We almost had a grandchild when my daughter was in her teenage years. She miscarried before I was informed of its conception. Was this my posterity?

If we had not adopted children, who then would my large righteous posterity be? The nieces and nephew my wife and I found such joy in helping to raise?

Since my early teens, my greatest desire has been to lead my family to live more moral lives. They have led more moral lives and they are making better choices, are they then this large righteous posterity?

I often feel a tremendous sense of guilt, shame, and loss because I have not served in formal church leadership roles since the beginning of our marriage. I have wondered if the Lord trusts me to lead his formal church. I have discovered what a blessing this has been in my life and the life of those I serve. This has left me with time to lead those who will never see the inside of a church. I am loved and admire by this group. I have led many of them to live more moral lives. Are they then my posterity?

I developed a talent for poetry when my wife was dying of cancer.  If not for the cancer treatments I would never have attempted poetry.  Will the poetry be my legacy and posterity?

These all be partial answers to the question of posterity.