Leaving a Legacy that Matters

When you have a heart fully devoted to God, you can trust that God’s goodness will overflow throughout your life, leaving a legacy that matters for the generations to come. How can you use little moments to drop seeds of faith?

Moments. Small, fleeting seconds.

Life is made up of these. And while there are exceptions, we don’t live out our lives in isolation. We are with our children. We are at the grocery store. The coffee shop. At work. The park. Countless moments within each day that hold an opportunity. An opportunity to bless another; to create a legacy that matters.

My Grandma made moments count. She passed away in September; the spiritual matriarch of my family, now gone. While I mourn her loss, I am also filled with gratitude for the legacy of faith she left behind. She embraced opportunities to talk about Jesus and modeled true discipleship – learning about Jesus and then teaching others. Anywhere she went, she took Jesus with her.

A conversation with a random stranger would inevitably lead to her sharing her faith and offering encouragement from the Word. After her passing, our family heard from person after person how she had impacted their life for the better. And this doesn’t come close to all the people she came into contact with over her lifetime, and the generations to come who will benefit from her boldness.

Are we walking out our faith, like my precious Grandma did? As mothers, we directly minister to our children by reading the Bible to them and sharing wisdom from our walk with God. But we also model to our children. What we truly believe is on display in how we interact with people on a daily basis – when we are at the grocery store, the coffee shop, or at work. We can be “doers of the Word,” as James says, for little eyes and ears.

Planting Seeds that Matter to Leave a Legacy That Matters

When we are the hands and feet of Jesus, we instill something precious into our children and anyone who is a witness to our love. We plant seeds in their hearts – seeds that grow into a boldness for sharing the only thing that matters in this world. Jesus.

If sharing your faith seems overwhelming, you are not alone. My Grandma’s boldness in talking with others wasn’t because she had an outgoing nature necessarily. Rather, her boldness was a result of the inclination of her heart. Barbara Muennink loved the Lord with all her heart, and it showed in the ease with which she shared Biblical truth with others. You see, when we commit our hearts to God, He rewards our devotion:

“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the whole earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His,” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

God will give you the support you need for everything, including sharing Jesus with others when He asks.

Here are some ways I’ve found that help incline my heart towards God:

Ask God to help you have a heart that is fully committed to Him (1 Kings 8:61).

Ask God to help you love Him with all of your heart, soul and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Then, simply spend time in the Word. Remember that as you read, the Word can penetrate your heart (Proverbs 4:21). And Paul tells us that when we hear the Word of God and accept it, the Word is at work in us (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Trust that your heart – a heart fully devoted to God – will overflow with God’s goodness. Let it overflow into the moments of your day. As our hearts are inclined towards God, moments that seem routine or something to be rushed through can become a blessing.

And know that the little eyes and ears you so dearly love are watching. One generation showing the next, how to make a moment count. I should know.

In honor of the boldest woman I knew.

Blessings,

Kelley Thigpen