Inspiration

Didn’t I Just Do the Dishes?

Blog_DishesI’m always amazed how fast the sink fills up after I do the dishes. Or how the hamper fills up so soon after I finish the laundry. And how the floor becomes a land mine of toys minutes after I put them away. Sometimes it seems like everything I do gets undone just as quickly.

There’s something inside me that longs for permanence in what I do. I want the things I invest my time and resources in to last—and not just for a day or two, or even a year. I want them to last beyond me.

Maybe that’s why I like writing so much. As long as the computer doesn’t crash, it’s nice to know my words will still be there even when everything else I spent the day working on is unraveling around me. There’s a satisfaction in completing something and having it stay…complete.

It’s easy to forget that the little things I do for my family are more permanent than my written words will ever be. Dinner may be quickly devoured and the dishes as quickly dirtied, and the clothes I just washed will likely end up in the hamper within hours. But action by action, day by day I’m investing in the lives of those I love and enabling them to one day be all they were created to be.

Someday the book I’m working on will be published. I’m hoping it will last beyond this generation. But I know my children will last, and what I impart in them now through servanthood and quality time and sacrificial love will be passed down generation to generation. I’m writing on their lives things they will take with them and pass down. Every act of love, no matter how small, no matter how seemingly temporary, and no matter how forgotten, will outlast us if only in unseen ways. And that makes everything worth it.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13)

At the End of my Life

Blog_OceanRoad

At the end of my life, I don’t care if anyone remembers my face, or even my name. I only hope I’ll have planted enough seeds of love to grow life-outlasting fruit. And I hope to have rightly represented our God of grace, mercy, truth, and love to have drawn people to know how amazing he truly is.

 

Source: Living with Legacy in Mind

Photo Credit: Bixby Bridge from Above  | by Daniel Peckham flickr.com

What is Good

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“He has shown you, oh mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

 

Source: Living with Legacy in Mind

Photo Credit: Bench Seat on Beach www.publicdomainpictures.net

Living with Legacy in Mind

Blog_BridgeI’ve been thinking a lot about legacy lately. What is it I will leave behind for future generations? Not in terms of material things, but in terms of life-impacting actions.

Maybe it’s the ever-increasing news of widespread hatred and violence that prompts this reflection. Or news of those now hailed as heroes all for devoting their lives and resources in pursuit of self-gratification. Or the featured news story praising a forty-year-old pop star for singing about the size of her behind.

I can’t understand what drives our generation to hateful acts that scar generations to come. Or to believe courage is anything less than laying down our lives for the good of others. Or to think our middle-aged years derive their worth from the size of our rear-ends—enough to deem it a song-worthy legacy.

In light of all this, I ask—what do I want my legacy to be?

Not hatred or violence, that’s for sure. Not a life lived in vain pursuit of self-gratification. And I’ve been to enough funerals to know the size of my behind won’t matter any more at the end of my life than it does now.

What if my legacy has nothing to do…with me? What if it has everything to do with the lives I influence for the good of the world here and in eternity? Knowing this would change how I use my time and my words. It would change how I invest my talents and resources. It would transform my goals, my actions.

At the end of my life, I don’t care if anyone remembers my face, or even my name. I only hope I’ll have planted enough seeds of love to grow life-outlasting fruit. And I hope to have rightly represented our God of grace, mercy, truth, and love to have drawn people to know how amazing he truly is.

“He has shown you, oh mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Source: Living with Legacy in Mind

Photo Credit: Old Bridge Free Stock Photo – Public Domain Pictures

The God Who Sees

Blog_Desert Sunset

“She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13)

 

Source: Stars Without Make Up

Photo Credit: Mission Peak Sunset View from Horse Heaven Tree | Flickr – Photo …

A Case of Stolen Identity

Blog_ThiefI’m surprised how calm my husband and I were when we found out his identity may have been stolen. At an appointment, his driver’s license randomly scanned in association with a different birthdate. On paper, he was seventeen years younger. Not a bad thing in years, but not a good thing if someone got ahold of his personal information for malicious purposes. Who wants their good credit rating messed up by a complete stranger?

Near-catastrophes like this don’t stress me out like they used to. Probably because I realize just how temporary it all is. Light and momentary. Not worth the drain of life and energy that comes from chronic worry. Yet the prospect of what could have happened has got me thinking about another case of stolen identity.

The Bible says there is an enemy who lurks like a ravenous lion, seeking to devour our souls. This enemy comes “to steal and to kill and to destroy.” He’s the most cunning of all identity thieves, replacing the truth of who we were created to be with lies we come to perceive as reality.

Through these lies, we’re convinced we can never change. We believe our identity is inescapably tied to our past. Once an addict, always an addict. Once a prisoner, always a prisoner. Once a failure, always a failure. We can’t see past our faults to who we were meant to be.

But there is a truth that is greater than the lie. Our identity is not found in what we’ve done, for the good or for the bad. Our identity is not about who we’ve been but whose we are. Jesus Christ died on the cross that our identities can be transformed. In him, we are given a new identity. We’re no longer the addict, the prisoner, the failure. Instead, we’re chosen, redeemed, forgiven, loved…and free.

“So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Cor 5:17)

Photo Credit: Thief the game | Flickr – Photo Sharing! www.flickr.com640 × 360Search by image

Whatever is…

Beyond_ThinkOnTheseThings

 

Source: Beware the Mind Invaders