A man about whom God said…
What does God say about me?
I’ve been reading in 1 Kings and I keep seeing the phrase, “Jereboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. That was his legacy. How sad to have history record the worst thing you’d ever done over and over again. Stay with me here because I know my mind jumps all over, but it’s really connected.
As my husband and I were praying together I was asking God to give me a heart like David who Scripture records as being a man after God’s own heart. I asked that my words, my actions, my attitudes would reflect God and give Him glory. Then my mind went straight to a challenge I regularly face and I wondered how often my attitude, actions and words reflect God during that time. Success for me would be a day in which I needed a power greater than my own to overcome a challenge and I didn’t succumb; that I faced that difficulty and with God’s help overcame and truly reflected God’s character.
History captures our greatest and our worst. Consider from the Bible, Daniel in the lion’s den. Look at David and Goliath or Mary the mother of Jesus who said, “May it be to me as you have said,” when faced with what would be the greatest challenge in her life to date. We can look at more recent history and see entire lives or political careers boiled down to a single act or a single statement. Most of us won’t affect the number of lives the above have, but we have a circle of those who will boil our lives down to “she was…” or “he was…” It’s what follows those dots that concerns me. What will my dots entail?
What will I choose to do about it now? I can’t change what I’ve done in the past but I can change what my tomorrow will look like. I can start today becoming the person I want others to remember. It’s never too late. I recently told the story of Andy (see my post titled Words of Power from 9/18/19), a man who changed dramatically in his later years once he accepted Christ. Andy had spent his entire life building the persona of mean. Comparatively, Andy only lived a very short time being the new man, but that is what I remember about him–the changed life, the compassionate man, the giving, caring, sharing, repentant man.
This picture shows a man with the word “Legend” on his cap, holding his son with the word “Legacy” on his. When they say a picture is worth a thousand words this is one. What legacy will our legend leave? What will the dots of our lives represent?
Home | Carolyn Kincaid's Potpourri for the Soul 