For those desiring to be wise stewards of the money and possessions God has entrusted to them, a serious question might be, “What about our children? Aren’t we supposed to leave them all our money?”

In a society with such affluence and opportunity as our own, I believe that in most cases Christian parents should seriously consider leaving the bulk of their estate to churches, parachurch ministries, missions, and other kingdom purposes, leaving only a small portion to their children. Our children should work hard, plan, and experience the joy of trusting God. Let God decide how much to provide for our adult children. The money we’ve generated under God’s provision doesn’t belong to them—it belongs to Him.

Leaving a large inheritance to children is not just a missed opportunity to invest in God’s kingdom. It’s also rarely in the children’s best interests. Even a modest middle-class estate—consisting of land, a house, furnishings, retirement funds, savings, collections, and other valuables—is often worth half a million dollars and sometimes much more.

In this video interview with Todd Wagner, senior pastor of Watermark Community Church, we discuss the question of whether we should leave an inheritance to our children. (If you’d like to read more on this topic, I share further related thoughts in this blog.)

photo credit: 56/365 - Coinage via photopin(license)