Leaving a Legacy

Thoughts from my heart....We attended the funeral of a dear lady today, the mother of my brother-in-law.  She died very unexpectedly at the age of 64.  She will be greatly missed by her family.  I found it so sweet that she had their Christmas presents already purchased and wrapped for them.  I'll bet all those gifts will be treasured forever.

Her pastor preached the funeral message from her very own Bible.  He went through it and read her notes she had written in the margins and notes she had taken from sermons as he was preparing the message.  He read us part of her prayer list, calling out names of many of the people that were there at the funeral.  He told us she had notes she had taken from a sermon on prayer given by a missionary.  He said she had shared those notes with him quite some time ago and inspired him to preach a series of messages on prayer.  He used those same notes to preach the sermon today.

As I sat there and listened to all the things he read to us from her Bible, I cried.  I was so convicted.  Will my family be able to glean all those things from my Bible when I'm gone?  Will they see my love for God and others through my Bible?  Will they be able to trace the struggles I've gone through from the notes in my Bible?  Will they see that I've been praying for them?

The Bible I use every day is 33 years old.  I saved up the money for it and purchased it when I was in the 8th grade.  I was so proud of that Bible.  It represented many hours of hard work.  I had my name engraved on the front, but the gold ink has worn away over the years.  It's just as well since my name has changed.  My mom has repaired the binding for me twice.  I'm hoping she can do it one more time.  It's getting pretty bad though.  You can tell where I read the most because the pages are yellowed more on the edges.

The sermon today brought to my mind and heart the godly legacy that De left for her children and grandchildren.  It makes me think of the song that goes something like this....


But as those who've gone before us,
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives.
May all who come behind us find us faithful.
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
May all who come behind us find us faithful.
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone,
And our children sift through all we've left behind,
May the clues that they discover
And the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them
To the road we each must find...


Lord, let me not get so caught up in the busyness of cooking, laundry, and cleaning that I fail to leave behind a legacy of godliness and faithfulness for my children and my children's children.  Amen