Friday, March 7, 2014

Legacy

I was sitting in my night class at church when the professor started talking about covenants. He said that, on our wedding day, we begin creating our legacy.  Our "I do's" have a purpose, plan and destiny in the eyes of God. Wow...

On our wedding day, we come to the altar with dreams. We want the house with the white picket fence, a couple of kids and a dog. That's the American dream, right? My husband and I talked about that stuff.  But, where's the conversation about the legacy?  How come this is the first time I'm realizing this?  We got married almost eight years ago and never once did we sit down and say, "OK, now that we're married, let's plan our legacy".

A legacy is defined as one of three things:  something handed down from one generation to another, money or property left in a will, or how you'll be remembered.

For me, how I'll be remembered is the important one.  Sure, I want to leave our kids an inheritance and some nice material things they can pass on to the generations that follow.  Isn't how they'll remember me far more important, though?  Isn't that what passes on to them and what they'll pass on to their children?

The thing about this type of legacy is, we typically don't think about it.  We live, we die and those that remain are left with memories and lessons learned.  Some of these lessons we meant to teach and others we didn't.  But, they got taught anyway.

My brother and I got an inheritance and some special things from our parents when they passed.  Far more importantly, we have what we learned from them.  There's the legacy. That was the greatest gift they passed down to us.  I just never labeled it.  I wondered if they ever gave it any thought.  Knowing our parents and taking into account their generation and culture, they didn't.  They simply lived it.  

I've heard pastors say that our children are our number one disciples.  Sounds like the perfect start to creating a legacy. 

What do I want to be remembered by?  That's simple:

I loved Jesus with reckless abandon and I lived my life to serve Him. 

If my family sees me living for the Lord, I've created my legacy.

"We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about His power and His mighty wonders...
...So the next generation might know them—even the children not yet born—and they in turn will teach their own children.  So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting His glorious miracle and obeying His commands."—Psalm 78:4, 6-7