Leaving a Legacy
When my two daughters were babies, I had the privilege of staying home with them. Although I loved being home, I often struggled to find meaning in my day-to-day life. In college, I had dreamed of becoming an award-winning journalist… a career that would surely give me a feeling of purpose. But instead, after my first child was born, I became a stay-at-home mom.
Like I imagine is the case for many stay-at-home moms, my days were both hard and beautiful, but always pretty monotonous… days filled with diaper changes and cleaning up the same mess for the tenth time. And even though it was the life I desired and chose, when I was in the thick of it, it was hard to feel like I was living with purpose, when I was rarely thinking beyond the ABCs.
Eventually, in an attempt to find something I felt I was missing, I tried to juggle a career with being a mom to toddlers. Some women do it flawlessly, and I admire them so much. But for me, it was more difficult than I care to admit. I had too many irons in the fire, and I was doing everything halfway, but nothing really well.
As I was struggling, a wise woman said to me, “Anyone else can do your job at work, but no one else can be your daughters’ mom.” That statement has stuck with me all these years, and at the time, it was like an aha moment… It helped give me a clearer perspective that my purpose during that season of life was to serve and care for my children, and that was more than enough.
On Sunday, Pastor Josh Rhodes talked about finding purpose in the family. He used an acrostic of the word to show how we can experience God’s perfect design for the family. It has faith, is a safe place, meets needs, impacts together, loves unconditionally, and becomes your legacy.
For the last point, using 2 Timothy 1:3-5 as a reference, Pastor Josh reminded us that the legacy God can give us through faithfully serving and loving our family can go on for generations and generations to come.
Those words help me see just how important that season of life, at home with my children, truly was for my family. Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven… A time to plant and a time to harvest.”
My girls are in elementary school now, and our season has changed. But when I think back, that season at home was “a time to plant” the seeds of God’s love for them, so that as they grow and go out into the world, they will “harvest” those values, and pass them on to their children, and their childrens’ children. There is no greater purpose that I could ever be given.
Parents, those long days at home are so meaningful to God, and I believe they will contribute to the legacy that we leave behind. For me, I hope it’s one of a family who does great things for God’s kingdom, for generations to come.
What will be the legacy you leave behind? I encourage you this week to read 2 Timothy 1:3-5, and think about how you can leave a family legacy of sincere faith, like that of Timothy’s.
Like I imagine is the case for many stay-at-home moms, my days were both hard and beautiful, but always pretty monotonous… days filled with diaper changes and cleaning up the same mess for the tenth time. And even though it was the life I desired and chose, when I was in the thick of it, it was hard to feel like I was living with purpose, when I was rarely thinking beyond the ABCs.
Eventually, in an attempt to find something I felt I was missing, I tried to juggle a career with being a mom to toddlers. Some women do it flawlessly, and I admire them so much. But for me, it was more difficult than I care to admit. I had too many irons in the fire, and I was doing everything halfway, but nothing really well.
As I was struggling, a wise woman said to me, “Anyone else can do your job at work, but no one else can be your daughters’ mom.” That statement has stuck with me all these years, and at the time, it was like an aha moment… It helped give me a clearer perspective that my purpose during that season of life was to serve and care for my children, and that was more than enough.
On Sunday, Pastor Josh Rhodes talked about finding purpose in the family. He used an acrostic of the word to show how we can experience God’s perfect design for the family. It has faith, is a safe place, meets needs, impacts together, loves unconditionally, and becomes your legacy.
For the last point, using 2 Timothy 1:3-5 as a reference, Pastor Josh reminded us that the legacy God can give us through faithfully serving and loving our family can go on for generations and generations to come.
Those words help me see just how important that season of life, at home with my children, truly was for my family. Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven… A time to plant and a time to harvest.”
My girls are in elementary school now, and our season has changed. But when I think back, that season at home was “a time to plant” the seeds of God’s love for them, so that as they grow and go out into the world, they will “harvest” those values, and pass them on to their children, and their childrens’ children. There is no greater purpose that I could ever be given.
Parents, those long days at home are so meaningful to God, and I believe they will contribute to the legacy that we leave behind. For me, I hope it’s one of a family who does great things for God’s kingdom, for generations to come.
What will be the legacy you leave behind? I encourage you this week to read 2 Timothy 1:3-5, and think about how you can leave a family legacy of sincere faith, like that of Timothy’s.
Author: Melissa Parker, Communications Specialist
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