Six reasons to leave a godly legacy:
I’m taking a class in Lifewriting—Composing Your Life given by LSU Lagniappe for “over-50’s.” It is interesting and fun to hear the childhood stories of classmates, most much older than I am. Yesterday, a retired teacher told a story about inviting soldiers who came through Baton Rouge in World War II to her third floor apartment in the old state capital. Imaging living in that grand old building! Evidently, Baton Rouge was a center of southern hospitality during those years.
Usually the stories lightheartedly describe first days of school, working in vegetable gardens or childhood pranks. One woman has a particularly fun way of storytelling, but yesterday, she said that what she would read was a little “dark” but something she felt she must include in her memoir. She wrote about wanting her family to avoid a family tendency toward self-destruction through addiction. Like my mother, her father had died of alcoholism. I could identify.
The story I read talked about my grandmother Foil and the stories she told. I wrote, “Hearing the same stories year after year made me feel part something solid and lasting. I needed that when I returned home. Because my mother was pregnant when she married my dad--no small thing in 1948--my parents moved to another state, returning home only for a few holidays. I envied people who grew up around family, whose grandparents and parents went to church together and had the same values. People who had family traditions and heard family sayings repeated over and over. Families who got together and told stories and laughed.”
When my mother was dying in 1985, I knew that the Lord told me I should write about that difficult time—the peace I had--the comfort and insight He gave—and the emotional healing I received. Like my classmate, I wanted to warn my children and grandchildren about a family history of alcoholism. Of my grandfather’s eleven brothers and sisters, nine had drinking problems. My grandmother preached and pounded warnings into my mother’s head, but the constant drillings probably pushed her more toward her alcoholism. The alcoholism happened, but warning about it is not why I write.
Writing about my life is fun. It becomes a way to understand, forgive and receive healing. I pray it also becomes a way to mature. Yes, even grandparents need to mature! Especially me. I am reading Extreme Grandparenting by Tim and Marcy Kimmel. They say, “Our children and grandchildren desperately need us to consider it a mandate that we act like grown ups. They need to know that when life is trying to get the best of them, they can look to us and see people they can count on to process everything through years of experiencing God’s grace.” I have certainly experienced God’s grace, but I don’t always act like it. I have let fears from the past hold me back from really trusting God. This is why I am writing about my life—to help me grow up!
No matter how many pages I write, the only real legacy I will leave is a real example of a living, current and active relationship with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. An example of trust.
Usually the stories lightheartedly describe first days of school, working in vegetable gardens or childhood pranks. One woman has a particularly fun way of storytelling, but yesterday, she said that what she would read was a little “dark” but something she felt she must include in her memoir. She wrote about wanting her family to avoid a family tendency toward self-destruction through addiction. Like my mother, her father had died of alcoholism. I could identify.
The story I read talked about my grandmother Foil and the stories she told. I wrote, “Hearing the same stories year after year made me feel part something solid and lasting. I needed that when I returned home. Because my mother was pregnant when she married my dad--no small thing in 1948--my parents moved to another state, returning home only for a few holidays. I envied people who grew up around family, whose grandparents and parents went to church together and had the same values. People who had family traditions and heard family sayings repeated over and over. Families who got together and told stories and laughed.”
When my mother was dying in 1985, I knew that the Lord told me I should write about that difficult time—the peace I had--the comfort and insight He gave—and the emotional healing I received. Like my classmate, I wanted to warn my children and grandchildren about a family history of alcoholism. Of my grandfather’s eleven brothers and sisters, nine had drinking problems. My grandmother preached and pounded warnings into my mother’s head, but the constant drillings probably pushed her more toward her alcoholism. The alcoholism happened, but warning about it is not why I write.
Writing about my life is fun. It becomes a way to understand, forgive and receive healing. I pray it also becomes a way to mature. Yes, even grandparents need to mature! Especially me. I am reading Extreme Grandparenting by Tim and Marcy Kimmel. They say, “Our children and grandchildren desperately need us to consider it a mandate that we act like grown ups. They need to know that when life is trying to get the best of them, they can look to us and see people they can count on to process everything through years of experiencing God’s grace.” I have certainly experienced God’s grace, but I don’t always act like it. I have let fears from the past hold me back from really trusting God. This is why I am writing about my life—to help me grow up!
No matter how many pages I write, the only real legacy I will leave is a real example of a living, current and active relationship with Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. An example of trust.
1 comment:
You have always been an example to us.
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