originally written October 15, 2008
(this is the 'bare bones' of a devotional I shared with our homeschool group some time ago at our home church in NC)
The word legacy is defined as something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor.
Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
Whether God were to call you to a foreign land or home to heaven, what type of legacy would you leave for your children? As home schooling moms, we have the unique opportunity to invest a lot of time into our legacy but that investment can be for good or for bad! Some things that I want to leave my children are, a legacy of:
1. Faith: Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: The preacher asked the question recently, “is your faith real enough for you to act like a Christian at home?” It made me think further - "Do you try to practice what you preach? How about what is preached from the pulpit?"
1 John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.v6 1 John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
It isn’t enough to talk about your faith, it has to be lived out on a daily basis. I thought of the story of Abraham and Isaac. In order for Isaac to have trusted Abraham along that 3 day journey to Moriah, Abraham’s faith had to have been lived on a day to day basis. When Abraham began that ascent to the top without a sacrifice, Isaac trusted his daddy when he told him that God would provide one. And when Abraham began to bind Isaac and lay him upon that altar, Isaac trusted his father’s walk with the Lord enough to lay down willingly. That type of trust didn’t happen overnight.
Can you imagine the stories of faith that Isaac had to tell his own children - the story of his own birth. How God promised his birth to his parents when they were old, how his daddy walked with God, how he trusted God enough to sacrifice him only to see God step in at the last minute and provide a ram in the thicket. And that faith carried through Isaac’s life as he put his trust in the Lord and God brought him Rebekah.
How are you living your life today to strengthen your children’s faith tomorrow? Do they see you trusting God in the hard times? When finances are tight? When you’re praying for a lost loved one? Do you share prayer requests with them? Every night my children pray for their grandmothers salvation (she was gloriously saved 12/26/2009!) - for their own salvation - for God to expand our family. I believe God is going to answer their requests and when He does, their faith will be strengthened. They learn faith through their parents. As we trust the Lord with our lives, with our finances, with our sorrows, with our burdens and they see God answer our prayers, their faith is strengthened so that one day they will come to trust the Lord as their Savior and learn to trust Him with their burdens and sorrows and needs. I want to leave my children a legacy of faith.
2. Family: when each of you became a mom, you volunteered for the toughest yet most rewarding job available to you. No position or power could be more important. You hold the very future in your hands and you shape in your daily living. Your family should come second only to God and yet so often, it takes a back seat to our day to day obligations.
If our children were to be completely honest, without any fear of embarrassing us or hurting our feelings, what would they say is most important to us as moms? Would they say it’s our hobbies? Our “me” time? Church activities? home schooling? Although they are all good things, they shouldn’t be what is most important to us. We’d like to think they’d say that our family is most important to us - I mean, after all, we sacrifice so much for them!
But how many times do we say “not now” “ask me later” “in a minute” - guilty!
Many might argue - but I deserve ME time! I recently heard a popular homeschool speaker make fun of those who do not believe in "me time". I would like to challenge her to find that for me in Scripture please?
Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Motherhood has a way of wringing selfishness out of you - and if you refuse to die to self, you will find your days full of frustration. Determine that your family will come first. May our children look back and say that mom put her own wants, her own desires, her own ambitions aside in order to give them the time and attention and love and training that they needed to help them become all that God desires.. Then you can say that you’ve left a legacy of family.
3. Future: Do your children know where your future lies? Do they know without a doubt that your eternal home is in heaven? Do you have a testimony and have you shared it with them lately? I don’t know why God wants me to share my testimony with you tonight but He impressed upon me Sunday morning to share it. .....
You can read my testimony HERE
In closing, I want to share with you something that I found years ago on Ann's blog - Holy Experience. I have carried it with me in my Bible for 3 years now and it blesses me anew each and every time I read it. I hope it touches your heart as well.
No one can see it, no one can touch it, but how everyone feels it: the spirit of a Mama, the spirit of a home, the spirit of a homeschool.
Mama’s spirit is the weather of the home, the climate of all learning, the atmosphere in which a family lives. There is no escaping the spirit of Mama…. it is the very air the children breathe. All day, every day, they inhale Mama’s spirit.
Does my spirit harm their emotional health? Like second hand smoke, is it detrimental to their hearts, aging them, suffocating them, poisoning them? Is my spirit a death-giving spirit…or a life-giving spirit?
I yearn for my spirit to make them soar. That they might breathe my spirit in deeply and feel ALIVE! That my spirit—a spirit of joy, a spirit of encouragement, a spirit of Him himself--- might be like a sweet, cool breeze sweeping down from the holiness of Mount Zion, reviving and refreshing.
When my race is run, and I am about to step across the finish line and into the eternal celebration of Home, might I turn to my children, look into their eyes and ask, as Elijah did, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
And may my children take my hand and say with voices full of hope, as Elisha responded to Elijah, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” (2 Kings 2:9)
Think of it: A double portion of my spirit. That is the legacy I leave for my children. May it be a double portion of a spirit of joy, of delight, of gentleness, of love.
That is an inheritance worth leaving. And one worth living.
Father, give me eyes to see my spirit. Give me wisdom to change my spirit. Give me more of Yourself. So that my children will inherit a double portion of YOUR spirit.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13
© Adorning Grace 2010
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