What Kind of Legacy?

I went to church earlier tonight and the sermon was about legacy in honor of Mother's Day.  The preacher talked about how Timothy was encouraged by Paul to walk in the ways of his mother and grandmother.  He spoke of his own grandmother and the legacy she had left behind.

A really good thought he had and drove home was that the legacy we inherited doesn't have to be the legacy we leave behind.  Many people have unfortunately inherited a legacy of abuse, addiction, any number of things.  That's not the end of the story though.  Change and transformation is available to all who believe at the foot of the cross.

I thought of my own mom and grandmother, each of whom have an incredible legacy that they're living and will outlive them long after they've gone onto glory.  I like to say I come from a long line of criers...my grandma and my mom both cry almost every time we say goodbye and now I'm about to the same point.  Particularly when I'm going to be away from my son for any length of time.

We all three cry for any number of reasons; sadness, grief, joy, happiness, reconnecting, worship, truly just about anything can trigger it.  It can be annoying at times, but I've learned to appreciate that side of me.  In my opinion it's because I love on a deep level.  I feel things more than others, and that's nothing to be ashamed of even though I'm a guy and guys aren't supposed to cry in our culture.

I have been broken over many things, both personal as well as things on a global scale.  That brokenness expresses itself through tears most often.  There's just something cleansing about having a good sob for some reason.

Steffani and I laugh that crying is one of the things where we take on different roles than what is stereotypical.  She can still cry of course but not nearly as frequently as I do.  Even during her pregnancy I was the one who would cry more often.  We'd laugh as I questioned whether I was the one with the pregnancy hormones instead of her.

If my son cries like I do at different things, I'm quite alright with it.  I don't want him to be overly sensitive but I do want him to have a soft heart towards the things of God and towards other people.  Most importantly, I want to leave him with a legacy of pursuing Jesus and His ways for us, not our own.  

I of course can only plant and water seeds and pray the Holy Spirit grows those seeds into fruit in his life.  Ultimately I have no control over where he'll end up.  But I'll do my best to point him to the One who loves him more than even I do.  I'm sure I'll screw up plenty of times, but I pray he's able to see past my insufficiencies and put his hope in the only One who is truly sufficient.