I was lying on my back this morning doing a few light exercises hoping to coax a little more energy into my aging body to face another day. As I was doing them, however, my eyes and mind started to wander. I looked up at an old picture of me and my children back when they were only three, six, and eight years old. It must have been taken almost 25 years ago, yet it still seemed like yesterday. I noticed something too. Each of the smiling faces had the same pointed chin tilting slightly to the right and the same unique grin. I glanced over to the picture of my parents taken even longer ago. There was the same pointed, crooked chin on my Dad and the same unique smile on my Mom. It was amazing to see so much of the same face blended together in 3 generations of my family.

It made me think too of all the things that we pass on to future generations. It is so much more than just heredity and genetics. It is everything we say. It is everything we do. What we pass on can be so helpful or so destructive. It can make this world a better or a worse place for generations to come. No one can even imagine how important and vital a single life can be in this world. No one can even imagine our value here or in eternity.

Each day we are leaving a legacy for those who come after us. Every tree we plant and garden we grow brings a little more life into this world. Every dog we save or cat we adopt adds more love to it. Every smile we share, every person we help, every kind act we do, every bit of love we give to others makes this world a better place for all the generations to come. The truth is our lives here are God’s gift to us and how we live them is our gift to God.

What kind of legacy are you going to leave to this world? What is your gift to God going to be? I pray that you will always let it be LOVE!