Leaving a Legacy

When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.
2 Timothy 1:5 NJKV


Four generations of hands..my grandmother, my mom, my daughter, and me.. A friend had encouraged me to take the picture before it was too late, so one Sunday morning after church I opened my Bible and asked my husband to take a picture of our hands. Two of those hands held me as a baby, picked me up as a toddler, comforted me when I was sick, and prepared an unknown number of meals for my nourishment. My own hand, bearing my wedding band, had held my two precious babies and comforted many other children along the way. And then the hand of my baby girl, a hand that I know is blessed by God and will do many great things for others as it already has.
Leaving a legacy. Paul reminded Timothy that he had seen the faith that he possessed, a faith that Timothy had witnessed from his mother and grandmother. They had left Timothy a legacy...a legacy of faith. What kind of legacy are you leaving for those who will follow? Is it a legacy of faith?
As I pause to think about the legacy that has been left for me by my two grandfathers who have gone to be with the Lord, I smile through the tears because they left a legacy for me that is more valuable than any amount of money. I was blessed to be the granddaughter of two precious, loving, God-fearing Christian men. They were both saved to the uttermost and I have no doubt where they reside today. As I write this post, I look up at my bulletin board above my writing desk and see their smiling faces. I am so thankful that God blessed me to have these men in my life. I am thankful that they taught me to stand up for what I believe in and not to be ashamed. I am blessed to have loved by both of them.
And so as I pause to think about this legacy that has been left for me, I start to think of the legacy that I will leave one day. And then I realize that although leaving a legacy is important, perhaps there is something even more important than that, and maybe that's what Paul was getting at all along. Perhaps he wasn't encouraging Timothy to leave a legacy as his mother and grandmother had done, but rather to live a legacy.
And so I ask myself this question, how can I live their legacy? How can I take this wonderful legacy they left, and live it for others to learn from each day? Did they leave this legacy for me to protect and remember, or did they leave a legacy for me to live it? Yes, one day I too will leave a legacy, but in the meantime my prayer is that I can live the legacy that they left me, so that each person I meet can benefit from the lives of these two precious men who I was blessed to have as my grandfathers.

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