Most everyone wants recognition for doing something meaningful. We so often look beyond our immediate circle when we celebrate the legacy of heroes. Yet, there are heroes in our midst or who were once in our midst. As I write this blog today, Oct 10, I celebrate the legacy of one of my heroes, my grandmother, Jessie Mae. She lived nearly 90 years, and today she would have been 98 years old had she lived. Yet, somehow she is as alive today as ever. Her legacy keeps her alive. My grandmother is physically gone, but her presence resonates whenever I say, “Mark my words.” My granddaughters get to know their great-great-grandmother when they’re admonished, “You don’t believe water is wet, fire burns, or fat meat is greasy.” I grew up with adages like these. Whenever we grumbled about our living conditions, she’d say, “If you live in a tent alongside a riverbed, make it home.” Whenever one of us speaks her pearls of wisdom or anecdotes with our children, my grandmother’s essence manifests into the lives of us all.
My grandmother lived life on purpose and with purpose. As a result, she left our family a rich and lasting legacy. “Don’t die old, die empty. That’s the goal of life. The value of life is not in its duration, but its donation.” Myles Monroe shared this insightful truth days before his plane crashed as he headed to the Bahamas for his annual ministry conference. What a legacy he left. Purposefully, living in the reality that it’s not in the number of our days, which makes the difference. It’s what we’ve made of those days.
So, I pose this question to you:
What will others most remember as your contributing deposit to your world? What have you sown into the lives of your circle of family, friends, and communities that will remind them that you were here? What will your circle most miss or cherish about you in your absence?
Living life on purpose with a purpose guides us into leaving a life of legacy to a legacy. I encourage each of you to live in such a way that those in your world are richer, better, wiser, healthier, and more enlightened because of your presence. Now, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is this: We will all leave the legacy that we’ve lived. Our circle reaps the benefits or experiences the disappointment of the legacy we’ve created by the life we’ve lived.
Still, the question remains:
What gift of you remains after your departure? What story will be told after your exit? How are others enriched from the life you’ve lived?
The legacy of life becomes what we’ve made of it.
The beauty–we determine what legacy remains of our lives.
Love this post. Mama left words of wisdom in all of us. Most important, she gave us Jesus. My prayer is that I would be remembered for the impact my love for Jesus had on others.
Should the Lord tarry, and He summons you home, Generations will remember.
I am blessed to have known her.
We are richer because of our time with such a precious soul.
I remember grandma watching all of us every summer, she would make us breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all 8 off her grandchildren, I can’t even think about watching 8 children all summer. One thing grandma tought me is how to make up a bed the right way 🤣, now I have a thing about if the bed is not made up right, I taught my children the right way to. I miss my grandmother so much but I will see you again.
Making a bed neatly and correctly, represents personal pride in a job well done. She believed in that for sure. And then, don’t sit on the corners of the bed, which didn’t make sense to me until I saw other people’s bed corners broken down. Jessie Mae–wise woman.
Mama was such a woman, that it’s hard to believe that she is actually gone from this earth. She lived such a life that her presence is still here, I can still feel it, it just seems like I haven’t seen or spoken to her lately. She gave me the desire to cook good food for my family, sew, and to quilt. When I was younger I sewed a lot for myself, children and others. Now I love quilting, and really enjoyed when mama and I was making a quilt together. It was a quilt made up of many strips. I would say to mama “just look at you 85 years old and you are still stripping” She would laugh so loud. I have also taken up canning and working in the garden, which were things that mama taught me as a child and I have returned to.
Sharing these memories and teaching these crafts in her honor keeps her essence with us. Thanks, for sharing.