A Family Legacy

Do you ever stop and think about what type of legacy you'll leave behind?  About what your kids will remember you by once you're gone?  About making memories and a creating a family identity that sets you apart and makes you different?  About what work ethic, values, integrity, and character traits that you've deposited in your children that will hopefully be passed down to theirs.  I think about this stuff a lot.


Benjamin fishing by the bridge at (Cub Scout) Camp Edgewood in Gillis, Louisiana  (One of my favorite pictures!)

I always wonder what steps I can take to instill in my kids timeless virtues and therefore, leave behind something of value that will carry forward those things our family cherishes.  Many of us are standing on the shoulders of our fathers.  Our lives today are shaped greatly by what our fathers gave us - and theirs by their fathers, and so on and so forth.  Our identity, in many cases, was largely determined generations ago.  Likewise, our kids' future is largely dependent on us and what we do.  That's a sobering thought.  It only takes one broken link in the chain and the work of generations of men and women can be brought to a screeching halt.

I'm not saying that it is all up to you, because it's not.  A child, and then a young man or young woman, has free will.  Once they are out from under your roof, they can make their own decisions - good or bad.  Sometimes things go awry despite our best intentions.


Foggy morning fishing

Faith, Hope, and Love.

First off, I want to pass along my Christian faith to my kids, fully aware that I can't make the decision to follow Christ for them.  That decision is theirs alone, but I have a great responsibility in conveying the message.  Just as Moses gave the commandments to the Israelites, we should teach (AND LIVE) the Gospel of Jesus Christ continually.

Deuteronomy 6:6-10
⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Secondly, as dark as this fallen world is, there is always hope and we should never give up.  There is hope in Christ.  There is hope in our fellow man.  There is hope in justice and that goodness and virtue and honor will prevail over evil.  I want my kids' eyes to be open to the evil that is in the world, but to never give up, never be complacent, never be pessimistic and never be apathetic.

Finally, there is love.  I want my kids to experience the love of Christ and to radiate that love to others in their path.  I want them to be considerate, thoughtful people that genuinely love other people and treat them as they expect to be treated.  Love never dies.

As a post script, I want them to share my love of the land, the smell of dirt, the enjoyment of watching things grow, the challenge of tending for God's creation and experiencing the joys (and sometimes sorrows) of that relationship with the land.  I want them to know how to work with their hands, grow healthy food, and enjoy a standard of living not measured by dollars, possessions, or other luxuries, but measured in love, peace and satisfaction that while they are living out lives of purpose on this earth, their real citizenship is in Heaven.

Our Maker's Acres Dirt!

  What kind of legacy will we leave and what can we do TODAY to shape that legacy?