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Key Bible Verse: And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others (2 Timothy 2:2).
Bonus Reading: 2 Timothy 2:1-7

I got a note from a young reporter whom I'd taught in a journalism class at the University of Oregon. He'd just avoided what would have been a serious mistake. He would have written a story about a man nearly drowning but, because he made a final call to the hospital right before deadline, learned that the man had actually died. Tragic though the outcome was, the reporter updated the story to reflect the truth; other papers didn't.

He made that call, his note said, because he remembered a hypothetical car-wreck exercise in which I'd emphasized the importance of making such last-minute calls—and later penalized him two full grades when he had failed to do so.

I thanked the young man for his note, but passed the credit on to an old journalism prof of mine who'd taught me that same lesson by offering a similar hypothetical exercise—and similar punishment, which I wasn't thrilled about at the time.

And, of course, at some point someone had to have taught my professor that lesson, too. In a sense, that's how legacies work: We put the missing pieces in someone else's puzzle, one generation to the next.

—Bob Welch in Where Roots Grow Deep

Respond: What values have I received from a previous generation?

Thought to Apply: A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.

—W. H. Auden (poet, 20th century)

Adapted from: Where Roots Grow Deep (Harvest, 1999)

For your convenience, Where Roots Grow Deep is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore.

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, I want to manage well what I've learned from others by purposefully passing it on.

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