What will be your legacy?
When you go to bed at night, and recap the day’s events, what is your lasting contribution to the world? What difference have you made in someone’s life? Have you written the world’s greatest novel, or invented some life saving device? No? Well let’s be reasonable, we all don’t fall into that category. So, what can us common folks do to leave our mark, so people will know that we were here, we lived our best lives?
The answer is simple, do something permanent. You may not write a novel, but you could write in a journal every night, and leave your children and grandchildren a little peek into your life. It could be as simple as reporting on the weather, or the birds you saw in the yard, or if you remembered something from your childhood. How about if you wrote just a line or two of poetry, or wise sayings you have learned over the years. What if you wrote the lines of your favorite song and explained what it meant to you?
There is another way you can leave you mark on the world, by smiling! Wherever you go or whomever you run across, smile… a big warm friendly smile. You will never know what effect it could have on a person. Teach a Sunday School class and change the lives of the youth. You can also write encouraging notes and put them in your children’s lunches, on the bathroom mirror, or even in a loved one’s pocket. You can paint a picture, make a quilt or a cross stitch sampler.
One of the things my mother would always do is leave a gospel tract with every tip she left in a restaurant. Only God knows how many lives she changed for all eternity. Why not write a couple of uplifting notes and leave them at your oil change place, hair stylist, nail salon or dentist office? There is always someone who is down and needs a little pick me up. Don’t go into the night silently, quietly, or not noticed. You are here, you are real, and whether you know it or not, your being here will leave a carbon footprint, but it is up to you if it will be good or nothing worth remembering.
As parents it is our responsibility to teach our children to be a blessing to others. We had a saying when I was young, “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last!” Be still, and listen to what the Lord wants you to do. Teach your children to journal what they are thankful for every day. Even writing down one Bible verse will help them not only learn the Bible verses by heart, but help learn to write, journal, and spend time in God’s Word.
We as authors are the ones who leave a legacy behind. What that will be is up to us, and what we choose to write. It is like cyber space, once something is out there you can never retrieve it, so be careful and make sure what you leave behind is what you want your legacy to say.
“How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who greatly delights in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; the generation of the upright will be blessed. “Psalms 112:1-2
Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. Colossians 4:4-6
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. II Corinthians 3:2-3
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. II Thessalonians 2:15