Legacy

Legacies.  A legacy is what we leave behind when our time comes, and what we're remembered for.  Legacies tend to reflect how much a person loved God and loved others in life. 

When Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the most important, he answered "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31).  Jesus boiled down the purpose of our lives to love God and to love others.  He gives us a bit more direction in this in the Great Commission: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19).  This is the kind of legacy we should be living now, leaving behind later, when we join our Father in Heaven.

People remember you for how you make them feel, not necessarily for what you do.  A good teacher is not remembered only because of the knowledge that they passed to their students, but also, often more so, because they made the student feel valued, regardless of how quickly or how well the student learned the material.  A good parent is not remembered for the number of presents under the Christmas tree, but for the times they were cheering at soccer games, for the times their child felt loved and worthy of love.  These are just two examples, but this is true, at least in my life, in almost every situation.

Legacies go deeper than this, though.  You are also especially remembered for the way you react in times of trouble.  "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body" (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).  The Message version of verse ten helps us to understand its meaning, "What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives!"  One of the reasons that we face these trials in life is to help fulfill the Great Commission.  Jesus' love for the Father and for His people, us, didn't falter in times of trouble.  Jesus should be our guide in life, and this is His example.  When Jesus was on the cross, dying not because of anything that He had done, but because of our sins, we mocked and scoffed at Him, but He asked God to forgive us, when we deserved it least, "Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).  This is a difficult example to follow, but we can draw strength from Jesus' words.  Right after Jesus gave the Great Commission He also gave this encouragement "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

When we react to trials as Jesus did, we are building a legacy for God.  In all of this, the goal isn't to be remembered as "a good person".  The goal should be to be remembered as men and women of God.  I want to leave behind a legacy that God smiles on. 

A Search for Truth

From a very early age we have the idea that each of us is a special individual pounded into our heads. The idea that we shouldn't let anyone treat us less then our supposed worth. But I've recently found that that is a truth that you need to discover for yourself, well, at least I did. I'm always hearing from the people around me "You're so special!" "You're such a wonderful person!" "Wait for the guy who knows he's lucky to have you!" "Forget about them, they obviously don't know what you're worth."

It's enough to make anyone believe it. But there was a day last week when I found myself wondering, what makes me worth so much? I'm really no different than the next person. Yeah, I have my quirks, and I have my qualities, but it isn't anything that couldn't be found somewhere else. So many people were saying the same thing for so long, though. For such a large amount of people to know and believe that each person is special, that each person is worth so much, there must be something that they're seeing that I'm not.

So I decided that I had to find my worth for myself, and stop letting other people tell me the same things over and over again. And guess where I found myself. The Bible. I read those verses that we've heard a hundred times, the verses about how special we each are, and how God loves all of us no matter what, and there shed some new light.

There are little side notes all through out my Bible, and one speaks about 2 Corinthians 10:12 (I'm not going to post what this verse actually says right now, and you'll see why in just a few moments, though I encourage you to look it up yourself. Biblegateway.com is a great online Bible to use if you'd prefer easier access). This side note gets inside the mind of a teenager. "Carol has nicer clothes. Jason is smarter. Carl can dunk a basketball. Karen has thick, wavy hair. Danny makes friends easily." I'm sorry to break it to you, but there's always going to be someone who's better at you at anything in particular, if you look at things that way.

Maybe you aren't as fashion forward as someone else, or you don't get as good of grades, but then you're forgetting about the calming effect that you have on people, or the way that you can make anyone laugh.

So there was my answer. It was actually really easy to find. Those people all around me were right. God created me as a masterpiece. God created you as a masterpiece. God created everyone as a masterpiece. The thing is that very often, we look at just parts of a whole, not the entire product. We see singly mediocre qualities, but God sees the whole, beautiful masterpiece. We focus on being the best in a world of billions, when we should really be focusing on being the best "us" we can be.

And there was my truth. No, when you look at one, or two, or even three or four qualities it's easy to find a replacement Abby, but it's when you put my whole being together that you have that special, worthy person that everyone is always telling me about. And I bet that you can find the same truth.

To help YOU find YOUR OWN truth, I've listed a few Bible verses (this is merely a starting point, my friends, you are not only allowed, but encouraged to stray from my suggestions, or go further in your search for truth)...

• 2 Corinthians 10:12


• 1 Corinthians 7:23


• 1 John 3:1


• Jeremiah 29:11


• Genesis 1:26-27


• Psalm 139:13-14


• John 3:16 (This is an easy one, heh heh, it's at the top of the screen)
  

Who are you?

Who am I? Who am I in this big world that so many billions of us humans call home?

Well, I am Abby. I am a brown haired, brown eyed girl, with friends and family who have a never-ending flow of love and support. I am a writer and a dreamer, a believer and an optimist. I am a usually happy person, and I'm a bit stubborn. I don't wear matching socks, and I don't have very much patience. I am Abby, and that's good enough for me.

There is a quote that my homeroom teacher has hanging in her classroom, from Bill Cosby, "The key to failure is trying to please everyone." Be who you are, and embrace it. Don't let anyone tell you that you aren't good enough, or that you shouldn't be the way you are, because, and believe me, I know this is said a lot, but it's because it's true, if someone doesn't like you, it's their loss. There are multiple billions of people on the Earth, and how many of them are exactly like you? What's that? That's right. Absolutely nobody else can replace you in the world. So don't let anyone change you, because in the end it's hurting everyone who you come into contact with, because those people are missing the amazing beautiful person that you are.

So, I ask, who are you? Do you know exactly what your answer is? Or do you still have a lot to discover? Either of those, and anywhere in between, is absolutely perfectly okay, so long as it's yourself that you are and/or are discovering. The world wants to see the beautiful person who you are, not a fake mask that society has taught you to wear, so throw the mask off, and declare to all of the Earth who you are.