Somewhere recently I read this statement:  “Most of the 500 wealthiest Americans got their money the old-fashioned way -- they inherited it!” 

That may be the case with money, but it is not true with the most important things of life.  It’s not true of character.  Of course, we are influenced in character by our parents, but our own character is our own doing, by our own choices, the way we choose to live.

We may inherit money, but we do not inherit faith.  Someone put it in a catchy line: “God has no grandchildren.” 

Faith must be first-hand, personal, appropriated by each person.  Too many of us are seeking to live on borrowed faith.  The 500 wealthiest Americans may have gotten their wealth the old-fashioned way -- by inheriting it -- but we don’t get character and faith that way.  They’re not inherited, they’re claimed, personally, and cultivated.