Leaving a Legacy

Lately, I have been just maintaining the chaos.  You know, floating down my personal river of the normal goings-on of our family and church and friends.  Sometimes getting too caught up in someone else's expectations of me or another's Saga of Drama.  Placing my own spiritual, emotional, and mental health aside to grease the skids for another.  Amidst all the normal and not so normal instances of life, I tend to lose my way.  Not necessarily careen off God's clear road map but to veer off into the Badlands of Pity or the Deep Sea of Regret. 

God has given me an amazing friend in Mandy.  This woman is truly a woman of God.  I can always count on her to counsel me in love but more so in Truth.  After calling her recently with an invitation to my Pity Party, she promptly called an end to my celebration.  She got down to the transparent, vulnerable, truth of the matter.  

"You're looking for approval and acceptance in all the wrong places, dear one.  Only our Sweet Lord can love you and approve you in the way that is needed".

NO ONE ELSE.

NOTHING ELSE.

To steer me back on track and to keep me there, Mandy challenged me with some very specific goal setting.  Part of that conversation was about what kind of legacy I want to leave behind.  She had been reading an article written by Sally Clarkson that said:

"What 5 attributes do you want to characterize your life?  Write them down and seek scripture to support these characteristics.  Then make a commitment to allow Christ to cultivate them in you."

 

What an idea!  I set financial goals, education goals for my children, weight loss goals (GROAN!), homemaking goals, food preparation goals, scripture memory goals, and so on.  But I have never given thought to the sort of legacy I will leave behind.

Will those that knew me remember my mess-ups and mistakes?  Will I be thought of as high-maintenance and sometimes harsh?  Will my name be synonymous with emotional basket case?  Or, a Judgemental Judy?

I pray not.  Over the last week, I've asked God to show me some areas that need some extra-special attention in my life.  I've written them as goals with scripture notes.

 

1. I seek to be a woman that uses edifying speech - everything I say to be good and helpful and an encouragement to those who hear me (Eph 4:29)
2. I seek to be a woman that is kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, making the most of every opportunity for doing good (Eph 4:32, 5:16)
3. I seek to be a woman that is quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, and to be merciful to friends and strangers (James 1:19, 2:13)
4. I seek to be a woman that humbles herself before God, draws close to Him, and to plant seeds of peace to reap a harvest of goodness (James 3:18, 4:7-8) 
5. I seek to be a woman that endlessly praises Him, to remember to give Him thanks even in my complaining, to look to Him and His strength, and to seek His face always (Ps 105:4, Phil 4:6-7)

I realize that leaving a legacy of worth will be a life-long goal, a pursuit to be made only with the aide of the Holy Spirit and a relationship with God the Father and Son.  

 

Do you want to join me?  If you are feeling led to examine your own legacy and want to share it with the women of Frisco Bible, please leave a comment.  Let's rejoice together as God makes it clear to each of us how we are to seek His way.