What's Your Legacy?

Legacy . . .

It's a loaded word . . .

It speaks of significance . . .

And it's a word I've been thinking about a lot in the last week.

It started when my Mom asked if she could borrow my Raggedy Ann doll to use as a reference in making one for me niece. The worn and well-loved doll sits on a shelf now. When I picked her up off the shelf memories came flooding back.

My Grandma made the doll. And the day I picked it up off that shelf to take it to my Mom was two years to the day since she passed away.

In the week since, I've been reflecting on the legacy my Grandma left. I had times when I wished I would have known her better, when I wished I could have done more things with her. But distance and differences in the kinds of lives we lived made it difficult to relate sometimes.

One thing I always knew I could count on though, was that she prayed for me regularly. She did for all of her grandchildren. I knew when she told me she was praying for me, it was true.

The truth is that I've been incredibly blessed to have great-grandparents and grandparents who have prayed for and still are praying for me each day. I haven't always realized that as the privilege it is, but it's something I wouldn't trade for anything now.

As my great-grandparents and my Grandma have passed, I have grown in my understanding of the legacy of being people of prayer that have left and are continuing to leave with their lives. A legacy that lasts and is significant.

All of this has made me start to wonder about the legacy my life will leave. Not in a morbid way, but with a sense of wanting to make a difference for the Kingdom of God in how I live my life. I don't want my legacy to be one of making a name for myself, but on of pointing people to Jesus everyday in all I say and do.

And that makes a difference in the things I do and say now. It humbles me before God because I can't do any of it on my own then. It all has to be Him.

That's what it was for my great-grandparents and my Grandma. I watched them do what they did for God even if no one else noticed. And it's something I still watch my grandparents do today.

That's the kind of legacy I want to have - whether it is one day for my own kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids or for the people God calls me to serve in my work and my church ministry.

Scripture talks about this kind of living.

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time." (1 Peter 5:6)

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." (James 4:10)

The more I reflect on this, the more I feel that these verses speak clearly to the kind of godly legacy we should want to leave behind. It starts with humbling ourselves before God so that He can do His work in and through us. It's not about us trying to do something significant; it's about being willing to be used by God the way He chooses.

What kind of a legacy do you want to leave?

Are you willing to begin by humbling yourself before God so He can use you in His ways?

Five Minute Friday: Belong

It was always one of my favourite places to go. I loved the place. And even though the people there were different every time, it was a place where I felt like I belonged. Summer camp was always the place where I could be who I was and be accepted for it. I didn't have to try to fit in anywhere. It was a place where I belonged.

We all want somewhere to bong. We search for it. We long for it.

When we find it, we feel safe. When we feel like we belong somewhere we're able to be ourselves - able to be who God created us to be.

When we can't find a place to belong, we might try to change ourselves to fit in somewhere. We hide who we really are and try to make ourselves something we aren't just to belong and fit in.

Those places where we belong. The people who we feel like we belong with. They are important to our well-being.

Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it should be to find those places. But, maybe we can change that. What would happen if we stopped being exclusive and started welcoming people - started giving them a place to belong with us? That could change the world.


Joining in with Five Minute Friday again this week. This week's word is "Belong."

Why we Need to Learn to Wait

     "In the morning, Lord, Your hear my voice;
               in the morning I lay my requests before You
               and wait expectantly."
                                       (Psalm 5:3)


We're good at bringing our requests to God. We're good at asking God for what we need or want. But we're not usually very good at waiting. Unlike the psalmist in Psalm 5:3, we want God to answer our prayers right away.

We don't wait well.

We look for the shortest line in the grocery store or at the gas pump because we don't want to wait anymore than we have to. We weave in and out of traffic because we don't want to wait to get to our destination. We put the phone on speaker and frantically try to get other things done while we're on hold because we don't want to wait and fee unproductive.

When we pray and have to wait for God's answer or wait to do something because He said to, we don't do that very well either. We get impatient with the wait.. We try to find some way to make it happen according to our timetable.

In all our impatience with waiting, I think we miss something important. When God tells us to wait, it's because He something in mind for us that we might not be able to see or understand yet.

The psalmist in Psalm 5:3 talks about waiting expectantly for God's answer to his requests. Waiting expectantly has a ring of being something active. It doesn't speak to the passivity we usually associate with waiting.

Waiting expectantly for God's answer speaks of looking for His answer. Our eyes are open. We're watching for what is going on - to see when God is at work and what He is doing.

It's not sitting back, doing nothing. It's actively looking for where God already is and doing what we already know we should be doing. Then, when the answer we've been waiting for from God comes, we're ready to do whatever the answer requires us to do.

That changes things for me. It's doesn't make me look forward to waiting, but it does make me dread the wait a bit less.

What are you currently waiting for God to answer?

How can you begin to wait expectantly?

Where do you already see God at work - even while you're waiting?