I was reading Think Orange by Reggie Joiner the other day and came across a concept that I thought was extremely profound.
Reggie Joiner said, “Sometimes I just have to be reminded that what I give to my children or what I do for my children is not as important as what I leave in them”
That is a helpful! Because as Joiner puts it, “Most parents can’t give their children a lavish inheritance, but every parent will leave a personal legacy.”
The problem is in most areas of my life I’m too busy focusing on short-term stuff to worry about a legacy. Here are some personal examples of short-term things I find myself focusing on:
– Am I being a great provider for my growing family?
– Are we living in the right area of town? In the right home? In the right neighborhood?
– Public School? Private School? Home Education?
– Why can’t we get our boys to sleep in past 6:30am?
Although these are great things to be thinking about, most of them, if I’m honest, aren’t going to matter much in a few years.
But as I’ve reflected on this idea, I’ve realized that there’s one area of my life where I do think legacy (rather than inheritance) — my faith. And it kind of happens by accident. Being at church every week, hearing great sermons from Pastor Steven, being in an eGroup, and serving together as a family just puts us in the zip code of legacy thinking.
If you were convicted like I was that you may be focusing too much on the short-term things that ultimately won’t matter then maybe the best thing you can do for your family is stay connected to the church. Just keep showing up, keep listening, keep putting your kids in eKidz and I think you’ll discover that the things you really want to leave in your kids start happening on their own.
