Have you thought about the legacy you want to leave behind when you die? Are you living now the way you want to be remembered then?
Whose life will you have impacted in a way you really want to?
It’s not too late. It’s a new year, a new decade, time for new beginnings.
Elizabeth Elliot was a missionary, a wife and a mother who had to start again many times in her life. She outlived 3 husbands, raised a wonderful daughter on and off the mission field and became a speaker and author with a long, vital life. The last change she faced was the challenge of dementia, which she embraced with the grace of God.
I personally find her her life very challenging and inspiring. As Debbie Mc daniel puts it:
Many of us came to know of Elisabeth Elliot through her story and work with the Auca Indians. Even after her own husband and 4 other missionaries were tragically killed at their hands, in the midst of her own grief, she chose to stay, to share the greatest gift of all with a people who didn’t yet know – the truth of Jesus Christ.
Her deep wisdom came with the cost of journeying through great pain in this life, yet many of us have gleaned amazing nuggets of truth from her experiences. Evidence still that God uses all we walk through in this world for greater purposes and good, more than we could possibly ever imagined.
The question is: Why would we want to leave a legacy? Why would we not want to live life for ourselves only?
I think the answer lies in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul, the Apostle shows us the why:
so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:7-10 NIV
We give our lives away. We live for the glory of Christ and that causes us to leave a legacy of grace- a sweet aroma to God.
Join me in desiring, praying and living out a life that creates a legacy, a life worthy of Christ, a life that boasts in Him and not in me.
Together in the journey of growth
Alison