It has been several days since we returned from the mountain. I must confess that I have yet to totally unpack. My suitcase still sits in my bedroom. I have removed some things from it out of necessity, however I have not totally unpacked. I would love to place some deep significance on my unwillingness to unpack on my desire to hold on to my mountaintop experience, but realistically it has more to do with my inherent laziness.
We went to the mountain to get away to a quiet place. It was beautiful, it was breathtaking, and the mountain air was somehow different in our lungs than the city air we breath back here at home. We arrived with snow flurries and woke to mountain sunrises and spent the day in communion with the blue sky and our sisters in Christ. We had wonderful teaching and even more wonderful table fellowship.
We pondered the meaning of what our legacy is.
We went to the mountain to get away to a quiet place. It was beautiful, it was breathtaking, and the mountain air was somehow different in our lungs than the city air we breath back here at home. We arrived with snow flurries and woke to mountain sunrises and spent the day in communion with the blue sky and our sisters in Christ. We had wonderful teaching and even more wonderful table fellowship.
We pondered the meaning of what our legacy is.
We asked ourselves what we want our legacy to be?
We were asked:
What seeds do I want to sow?
Want kind of harvest do I want to reap?
These are difficult question to answer if I am to honestly think of them and answer them truthfully.
What seed do I sow on a daily basis now?
What harvest do I reap from my behavior today?
What do my children see me doing?
I have had several very powerful realizations on exactly how this works over the last few years. With the birth of my daughter things were focused a bit more clearly for me. She is now entering a point in her life where she is leaving the childishness of life behind and moving into her own as a young woman. She is watching everything I do and say. She is leaning how to be a woman from my example. When I really fully take in the heavy reality it seems too much responsibility for me to comprehend. But even with that feeling, it does not lessen the truth of the situation. My daughter is going to look to me and model her behaviors after what she sees me doing. WOW! I have to let that sink in for a while. I have known this in theory, all mothers do. My husband and I have worked long and hard to raise both our children in a Christian home and to pass on the values and beliefs that we have in our hearts to our children. It is important to us. But this seems a bit different to me. It feels a bit like being under a microscope and the lenses of this microscope look a lot like my daughters beautiful brown eyes. She is watching me! She is watching everything I do. You see I did not learn how to be a Christian woman from my own mother. I had to learn on my own as I grew into my faith. So now I have new and wonderful, and terrifying opportunity to really practice what I believe and pass that on to the next generation.
We talked about this on the mountain as well. We discussed the reality of how the faith of the people of God is only one generation away from being extinct. That is important so listen to it again.
“The faith of the people of God is only one generation away from being extinct.”
If I do not pass on what I believe to my children then they will be sadly on there own, basically wandering in the desert just like the Israelites for all those years. It will not be impossible for them to come to a relationship with Christ, because we know that God’s desire is for all to come to know him. I look at my own experience and I know this to be true. After many years of my own wandering I thankfully came to know my Heavenly Father, do I hear and AMEN, that’s right sister AMEN, AMEN and AMEN!
Each day on the mountain we sang the song “ I want to be a Legacy”
Legacy
By: Nicole Nordiman
I want to leave a legacy.
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to you enough to make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering.
Child of mercy and grace who blessed my name?
Unapologetically
I want to leave a legacy.
I returned home with this song my mind.
How will I be remembered?
What am I teaching my children?
Do I choose love?
Do I point to God enough to make a mark on things?
What will the offering of my life be?
I know that these questions will be upper most in my mind for quite some time.
We left the mountain with a very small keepsake, an example if you will of what our time on the mountain was all about. I have it on the table before me as I am writing these words. I will keep it in my bible and use it as a remainder. It is a small plastic back of dirt. Good fertile soil. It has three scripture references on it. If you were on the mountain with me you know what they are. Genesis 2:4-7, Ecclesiastes 3:20 and Luke 8:15. (I have included these scriptures in full at the bottom of this post.) This tiny bag full of very simple dirt reminds me daily that God formed us (me and you) from the dust of the earth (GEN 2:4-7), which we will one day all go back to that dust from which we were formed (ECC 3:20). It also reminds me that while we are here on the earth it is up to me to be the good soil where a seed can take root and thrive, good soil with a noble and good heart, to not only hear the word but remember it, to retain it and to tell it to others about it, especially those that I love the most. It also reminds me to persevere (LK 8:15). We don’t like that word at all, it brings pictures to our mind about suffering and pain. We all want things to be easy. But God never promised us easy, in fact we are told that in this life we will have trouble, it is how we overcome that trouble when our true character gets to shine.
Look at the lyrics of the song again.
Ask yourself:
How will I be remembered?
Do I choose love?
Do I point to God enough to make a mark on things?
What will the offering of my life be?
What will my legacy be?
So since my daughter is watching me so very closely I think maybe I need to go really unpack my suitcase and get it off my bedroom floor.
In His Precious Name
GE 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-- 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
ECC 3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
LK 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
What seed do I sow on a daily basis now?
What harvest do I reap from my behavior today?
What do my children see me doing?
I have had several very powerful realizations on exactly how this works over the last few years. With the birth of my daughter things were focused a bit more clearly for me. She is now entering a point in her life where she is leaving the childishness of life behind and moving into her own as a young woman. She is watching everything I do and say. She is leaning how to be a woman from my example. When I really fully take in the heavy reality it seems too much responsibility for me to comprehend. But even with that feeling, it does not lessen the truth of the situation. My daughter is going to look to me and model her behaviors after what she sees me doing. WOW! I have to let that sink in for a while. I have known this in theory, all mothers do. My husband and I have worked long and hard to raise both our children in a Christian home and to pass on the values and beliefs that we have in our hearts to our children. It is important to us. But this seems a bit different to me. It feels a bit like being under a microscope and the lenses of this microscope look a lot like my daughters beautiful brown eyes. She is watching me! She is watching everything I do. You see I did not learn how to be a Christian woman from my own mother. I had to learn on my own as I grew into my faith. So now I have new and wonderful, and terrifying opportunity to really practice what I believe and pass that on to the next generation.
We talked about this on the mountain as well. We discussed the reality of how the faith of the people of God is only one generation away from being extinct. That is important so listen to it again.
“The faith of the people of God is only one generation away from being extinct.”
If I do not pass on what I believe to my children then they will be sadly on there own, basically wandering in the desert just like the Israelites for all those years. It will not be impossible for them to come to a relationship with Christ, because we know that God’s desire is for all to come to know him. I look at my own experience and I know this to be true. After many years of my own wandering I thankfully came to know my Heavenly Father, do I hear and AMEN, that’s right sister AMEN, AMEN and AMEN!
Each day on the mountain we sang the song “ I want to be a Legacy”
Legacy
By: Nicole Nordiman
I want to leave a legacy.
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to you enough to make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering.
Child of mercy and grace who blessed my name?
Unapologetically
I want to leave a legacy.
I returned home with this song my mind.
How will I be remembered?
What am I teaching my children?
Do I choose love?
Do I point to God enough to make a mark on things?
What will the offering of my life be?
I know that these questions will be upper most in my mind for quite some time.
We left the mountain with a very small keepsake, an example if you will of what our time on the mountain was all about. I have it on the table before me as I am writing these words. I will keep it in my bible and use it as a remainder. It is a small plastic back of dirt. Good fertile soil. It has three scripture references on it. If you were on the mountain with me you know what they are. Genesis 2:4-7, Ecclesiastes 3:20 and Luke 8:15. (I have included these scriptures in full at the bottom of this post.) This tiny bag full of very simple dirt reminds me daily that God formed us (me and you) from the dust of the earth (GEN 2:4-7), which we will one day all go back to that dust from which we were formed (ECC 3:20). It also reminds me that while we are here on the earth it is up to me to be the good soil where a seed can take root and thrive, good soil with a noble and good heart, to not only hear the word but remember it, to retain it and to tell it to others about it, especially those that I love the most. It also reminds me to persevere (LK 8:15). We don’t like that word at all, it brings pictures to our mind about suffering and pain. We all want things to be easy. But God never promised us easy, in fact we are told that in this life we will have trouble, it is how we overcome that trouble when our true character gets to shine.
Look at the lyrics of the song again.
Ask yourself:
How will I be remembered?
Do I choose love?
Do I point to God enough to make a mark on things?
What will the offering of my life be?
What will my legacy be?
So since my daughter is watching me so very closely I think maybe I need to go really unpack my suitcase and get it off my bedroom floor.
In His Precious Name
GE 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-- 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
ECC 3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
LK 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
2 comments:
You are leaving a legacy...in your own field and I know it is not falling on rocky ground. Even if they are not recognizing it yet. They are seeing the love for your Lord, your prayer time with him, your study time with His Word. They see the love you share with your husband and the law of love in your household, the right of respect for all under Jesus' creation. They see your hands busy providing for others, helping when there is a need, tears when there is pain and wonderful hugs when loneliness appears. Yes, you are leaving a LEGACY! ...even if you don't like SNOW!
love you....
sk : )
I am sure you will notice i refrained from describing the snow with any colorful adjectives, I just comented that in fact it did snow while we were there.
I Love you!
And yes, I really do know I am leaving a legacy, it is just good to keep the questions and the example of what we all need to be focusing on in the for front of our daily lives. It is so easy to get side tracked by other wordly things and loose sight of what it is that is really important.
PHP 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
See you later this evening.
All my love form one persistant momma to another.
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