The Legacy of Mama's Spirit, by Ann Voskamp

I discovered Ann's blog ~A Holy Experience~ several years ago and there is one post that I have gone back to time and time again. I'd like to share it with you here.

The Legacy of Mama's Spirit

by Ann Voskamp

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.

© Adorning Grace 2012