What Will You Leave Behind?

Most people I know are really trying to make a difference - in their families, in their church, in their workplace, in their community, in their school.  Making a difference means impacting people or places in a positive way.  It means making something that is not so good, good and something that is good, even better.   What you leave behind, or what you pave the way for others to do, is your legacy.

Take Geraldine Ferraro - wife, mother, congresswoman.  In 1984 this woman was the first woman to be nominated for the vice-president of the United States.  She paved the way for other women to run in a presidential election.   She left a legacy that women can and should be taken into serious consideration for running our country.

My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Flanagan left a legacy without even knowing it.  Mrs. Flanagan is the reason I became a teacher.  She was fair, consistent, thorough in her teaching and she was understanding and kind to her students.  I wanted to be a teacher exactly like Mrs. Flanagan was.  I believe I succeeded.  My hope is that someday some of my students will become teachers like Mrs. Flanagan (and I).  That will be one of my legacies.

Our children and the kind of grown ups they turn out to be is a parent's legacy.  What kind of husband and father a son becomes is a father's legacy.  What kind of wife and mother a daughter becomes is a mother's legacy.

When life changes happen and you move to another location or you start a new job - when you leave this world, what will you leave behind?  This is something we need to think about.  This is something we need to be intentional about. Legacies don't just happen.

Call upon God as in the book of Isaiah - "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your curtains wide, do not hold back;..." 54:2a.  Throw open your doors, and do something you have dreamed of doing that will be a legacy of courage.  Take a chance.  Share your faith.  Invite a friend to church.

Call upon the Lord as Jabez did - "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!..." "And God granted his request."  1 Chronicles 4:10a & b    Perhaps your territory is your family.  Could your legacy be the adoption of a child or becoming foster parents?  Whatever your legacy, ask God to bless it and then stand back and watch how He grants your request.

Teaching our children to love the Lord and teaching them how to read and use the Bible is our spiritual legacy to our children.  What better legacy can you leave than to leave behind children that love and serve the Lord.  (Deut. 4: 9)

Max Lucado said about legacies, "Outlive your life."  A very simple statement but dead on!  Your legacy is what you leave behind that is a piece of who you are and it carries on after you are gone.   It represents your essence that has been absorbed by the thing or the place or the person you have touched.

"All good men and women must take responsibility to create legacies that will take the next generation to a level we could only imagine."  Jim Rohn

What will you leave behind?  What is your legacy?