Building a Legacy

Our baby girl celebrated her 5th birthday this week. That means we have an 8 year old and a 5 year old. Every birthday brings a time of sappy reflection. I remember the day that Logan was born almost 8 1/2 years ago. When they handed him to me I kept looking at his feet and his cute little toes. I continuously ran my fingers over his feet as my mind raced. We were in charge of him. They were going to send him home with us in a couple of days and I can't even keep a plant alive. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the amount of love I could feel for someone and the intense responsibility to not mess him up. I would imagine that most parents feel those same emotions. When you look at your baby you imagine all of the things that they may become. A great athlete, a brilliant doctor or a wealthy head of a corporation. But somewhere in the past few years, our dreams for our children have changed.
It's not that I don't want my children to be successful, I just view success differently. I've realized that it doesn't matter if you are a straight A student if you aren't a person of integrity. It doesn't matter if you are a star athlete if you are unwilling to help someone who has stumbled. It doesn't matter if you are a wealthy CEO if you are so wrapped up in your investment portfolio that you don't even notice the homeless man on the corner.
Then came the realization that if this was important to us, just saying it wasn't enough. We were telling them that they should be generous to others, but we were only doing it when it was comfortable and convenient for us. We were talking about compassion, but would drive through the inner city without giving a thought to who lived in those houses. We told them not to be judgemental, but would assume that the man on the street corner was there because he had made a series of choices that placed him there. We would talk about grace and forgiveness, but rarely offered it. We would say that we were Christians, but our life reflected little more than a Sunday service, a $20 in the offering and a random volunteer activity.
In the past year, we have made a conscious effort to change that. We have a long way to go, but a consistent prayer in this house is to let us see those who need help and have the courage to act. Some words from one of my favorite songs often rings through my head .... in my own little world it hardly ever rains, never felt hungry, always felt safe. I've got money in my pocket and shoes on my feet, in my own little world population me.
If we want our children to have compassion for others, they should see us roll down the window to give the man on the street corner cold bottle of water and enough money for a meal. If we want to teach our children about sacrificing, they should see us sell possessions to help raise money for someone else. If we want our children to step out of their comfort zone to fight for the least of these, then they should see us step on a plane to go to a children's hospital on the other side of the world. If we want our children to forgive others, then we must ask them for forgiveness for all of the times we have messed up. If we want them to offer grace to others, we need to offer grace to them. If we want them to be Christians, they need to see that following Jesus means more than showing up to church on Sunday.
Becoming a parent has been one of the most humbling things that has ever happened to me. I can be so selfish, so judgemental, so flawed that it is appalling. Yet I have been given the gift of grace that allows me to stand up and try again. Sometimes late at night I will sneak into my children's rooms and sit by them as they sleep. As I watch their chest rise and fall I am often overcome with how blessed I am to be their mom. They have helped me to give more, fight harder and pray more fervently Proverbs 22:6
Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.