You are writing your story every day
It may not be with pen and paper, or a computer screen, but you are telling your story by living your life. What you are writing is determining your legacy.
We all have the power to create our own story. Others are watching your life and they are retelling your stories. What are they saying about you? How is your story being lived out and then communicated to the world around you?
Your story is determining your legacy.
Did you know your decisions today define your legacy. Its hard to think about our future that way but your decisions + the stories told about you = Your legacy. And your legacy is what is that is passed down for generations to come. It is a little intimating to think that the power to change our legacy is based upon our ability to change what we do. Changing what we do changes the plot of our story, and then our new legacy is born. It really is that simple. I did not say it was easy, only that it is simple.
Each day we must find the courage to live up to our legacy
It takes courage to stand against things that will destroy your legacy every single day. I promise you that there will be new challenges to face every day. Some will be easy to overcome, others will take an extra dose of self-control and bravery. If you don’t like the legacy you are leaving, stop reinforcing it and change what you are doing. The everyday choices you make, the things you do and the things you say, are adding to the foundation of your legacy.
When Ron first went to prison, we were shocked. Not just because Ron went to prison, but also because of the things people were saying and believing about us. Then, we had to face reality. We had been acting like our decisions and actions didn’t matter. We had been living our lives like we were in a vacuum. But we weren’t. Every bad decision we made had impacted someone. When we got drunk, hosted parties, got high… people saw how we lived, and they formed opinions about what we stood for. Our reputation was terrible—doo-doo. It was so hard to ignore the denial I wanted to hide behind, and to accept the truth that we had created the world we were now living in. We could not be taken at our word.
We had carelessly created the beginning of a legacy we did not want.
When Ron went to prison for a crime he did not commit, we found ourselves face-to-face with the legacy we had begun to build. It woke us up. We knew we had to change everything. Since our current lifestyle caused people to believe the worst of us, we knew we had to make a radical change in order to save our family. We were determined that our new legacy would be one of honor, integrity, and righteousness for generations to come.
Have you ever had a “friend” that always complained? I am talking about someone who ALWAYS has something bad to say about someone. They can find the smallest things and turn them into a huge ordeal. And spending time with them can be exhausting.
Create your Family Legacy
The first thing we did was to write out what we wanted for our family. Funny how prison makes you realize the most important things in life. Before prison, we would have said the thing we wanted most was fortune. But now, the number one thing on our list was not money, fame, or things—it was a good reputation. We wanted a good name for our family. It made us think about the things that would stop us from having a good name. We made a list of things we would not do; and a list of things we would do instead. (If you have read my other blogs, you know how much I love lists!)
From that point on, we have made decisions based on what we want our family legacy to be. For our family, the most important legacy we want to leave behind is that we were followers of Christ. Our hope is that our children and grandchildren will remember that we loved the Lord with all of our hearts and did our best to follow Him every day, and to serve others. That is the legacy we fight for every day.
What is worth fighting for in your life?
Have you determined what legacy you want to leave behind? If not, it is time to decide what you want and make a plan to get you there. If you leave the effort to other people, they will decide for you what your legacy will be. You have the power to change your life, set a new course for your children and your family. Now is your chance to change everything. You CAN and you MUST reinvent your family.
I am rooting for you!
Cathy