Legacy

"So, when you die, if I get your room, I could use it as a bedroom or we could make an office for Daddy." 

This spoken by my 8-yr old granddaughter, Harriet.

Harriet and her sister, Annie, are twins and they had come upstairs to visit me.  During the course of the visit, they asked if they could try on my shoes.  I was finishing up something on the computer, so I said sure.  I could hear them in my bedroom giggling and oohing over the shoes.  Clomp! Clomp!  They clomped in to show me the shoes they liked the best.  Back into the bedroom, then back to see me. 

"Can we lay on your bed, cause it's so cozy and we just love it?" 

Sure I said.  I could hear them talking, then something caught my ear.  They were having a discussion about who was going to get what when I died!!

They said they wanted my bed because it was so cozy and warm.  Then I heard them move off the bed and they were checking out my jewelry saying, "Oh, I want that" and "I hope she leaves me that."

When I finished up my work, they asked for a snack, so I passed out cheese sticks and the comment about making Daddy an office was made as they sat around the kitchen table.

What is up with that? I thought. 

"Hey, girls, I don't plan on dying for a really long time."

 

"We know, but you've got really great stuff."

They stayed for awhile after that and we shared some more laughs and then they left for home.

I started thinking about their conversation.  What would my legacy be to them other than my "stuff?" What was really more important for me to leave them?  How did I want them to remember me and what impact would I have had on their lives that they would carry into adulthood?

Food for thought, for sure.  I pray that they will remember me first and foremost as a grandmother who loved them and made time for them.  I pray they will remember that I loved the Lord and tried to live my life as an example of that.  But, do I?

I think of the legacy my husband left.  We talk about him often and one of the things we have discussed and so many people have shared with us, too, is that Phil lived out the written word.  He may not have known how to exegis the Scripture or the Greek and Hebrew words, but He lived the Word.

Lord, please help me to be that kind of example.  Help me to leave that kind of legacy.