In tradition, families pass down a gift to a daughter or son when they are married. I didn’t have this tradition when I got married since my father passed away before I finished high school. He was not really religious at all, not a Christian but an honest merchant. From when I was young he talked about bad people. He meant those who did not live a clean life. Those who were being dishonest in business and with greed or tricks dealing with their daily lives. He saw many these dishonest people end up with bad endings like in prison or at the cost of a broken family and miserable old age. Through listening to his life experience we learned from people’s mistakes and wrongdoing and decisions. He always taught the family including my mother never took advantage of people and did good and be honest and God would protect us. That was his teaching and my family inherited his teaching from him. Looking back I did not lose anything but live a clean and honest life.
Apostle Paul wrote that when he thought of Timothy, he was reminded of the “sincere faith” that lived in Timothy’s grandmother and mother. And hope that Timothy would hold on “to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:1). Those who don’t have families to pass down faith can still find parents and grandparents in the church—people who will help us figure out how to live a “holy life” (v. 9), and to embrace the gifts God has given us of “power, love and self-discipline” (v. 7). Truly, we all have a beautiful inheritance.