Creating Your Own Legacy
Legacy? A what? Well, it’s more than the antiques your great-grandmother may have passed down to you. It’s even more than carrying on a family name or having a family tradition. Leaving a legacy means you will leave such an impression in your lifetime for the contributions you have made, that your name and your actions will continue to thrive in the hearts of many. For some, this is very public, as in donation of millions for a new building on a university campus. For others, it might mean that you were always the one that could be counted upon to bring hot, fresh meals to families in need.
It might be fun to talk about leaving a legacy as a family. This conversation might lead to some creative and truly meaningful ideas that could involve many in the family for generations to come. In visiting with a few families about this very thing, we learned how families have been giving in a variety of ways.
One family serves to a Homeless Shelter together on Thanksgiving Day. One family plants a tree on their church property for significant milestones in their own families’ life. That church ground will someday be filled with the shade this family provided. Another single lady makes one little girl’s dress every single day and at the end of every month ships them to a Charity for children.
These ideas are easy, wonderful, and intentional. Because of these families’ consistent actions, however, not only is good being performed, but, the legacy of what they have done will live in the hearts of those they touched directly, and the ones influenced indirectly.
