What is your legacy?

What do you think of when you think of a legacy?

I often think of significant events… birthdays, weddings, funerals . Always at these events there are beautiful speeches and testimonies that are told about people and the way they lead their life. For a long time I didn’t ever purposefully try to shape my legacy… I just thought it was something that you leave behind and it’s how other people choose to tell your story.

I now believe differently. It’s how you choose to influence other people’s stories. It’s the way you pour into their life that shapes your legacy.

I think it’s too late if we try and shape or think about our legacy at the end of our life. It’s time to ask yourself today, “What legacy did I leave behind yesterday?” “Did I choose to love?”

“What can I do now to leave a legacy behind that tells those around me they are enough and worth my time?”

It is easy to listen to the messages of “hustle harder” and “when you reach the goal of (fill in the blank) you will finally be happy and have time for everything”.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we can do great things with our time throughout our lives. We can start non profits or businesses that give our families freedom and offer value. We can work purposeful jobs that provide for our families and serve others. Those are valuable things to do with our time.

I’m also not saying that you need to say yes to every invitation that comes your way. We need to protect our time and learn how to use it wisely. I think I would actually go crazy if I said yes to everything.

But, when we are saying no all the time because those goals, jobs or measures of success are taking over every aspect of our life…it takes us away from loving the real life humans God has so graciously put in our path. That is the point when we need to check our hearts.

Several years ago I was working a part time job in town, a part time job remotely on my off time and also running The Lovely Adventure. All the jobs were filled with the greatest intentions and I loved them all. They all sent messages out into the world that said, “You are loved” and one was even a Christian summer camp… I can’t think of a more beautiful mission than to share The Good News with our youth.

i had turned Gods gifts into stress and exhaustion.png

My heart was in the right place and I truly believed I was doing what God had called me to do. But I was stressed, not delegating, taking too many things on, terrible at saying “no” and literally running myself into the ground. I had taken opportunities God had given me and turned them into points of stress and exhaustion. Sounds like a classic human move, doesn’t it?

Soon after all of these things came to an end I had exhausted myself and realized just how empty my life was. I hadn’t seen my friends in months. I hadn’t seen my family. My marriage was full of arguments and painful conversations because we felt far apart even if we were in the same room. We were surviving on frozen pizza and the size of the laundry pile on our couch was embarrassing. I had to start at ground zero and figure out how to build everything that my busyness had destroyed.

God doesn’t make mistakes.

I don’t think it’s a “nice gesture” that he puts friends and family into our lives. I think it is purposeful and part of our calling to love those humans the best that we possibly can. They will be there to give the speeches and testimony of our legacy, after all. Are we telling them, “I don’t have time for you, I’m too busy.” or “Those things can wait, I’ll make the time.” ?

I’m sure you can guess which message I was giving out.

You see, all the good I was doing in all the jobs was worth nothing if the people who were put into my circle felt second best. If anyone had asked them how good of a friend, sister, wife, daughter etc. I was… if they were really honest, I think it would have been “a busy one….and not the best”.

Do we want to be busy or do we want to be a friend? Do we want to be successful or do we want to be there for those we love when they need us? What is God calling us to?

It’s all about balance and it’s a daily battle to fight for… but I want us to start thinking about shaping our legacies now before it’s too late. To choose our people over everything. To choose to love and to point people to Christ with our actions and the way we spend our time.

I sat down and thought about an action item to give you. I want you to think of at least three ways you want to be remembered.

So, when a friend is telling someone else about you they don’t say, “yeah she is really busy.” but instead, “She’s a really great friend. We have the best conversations, I can always call her if I need something”.

Here are the ways I want to be remembered:

Andrea loved people before her to-do list
Andrea wasn’t busy, she was productive with her time
Andrea didn’t waste the time God gave to her, it was her most valuable currency
Andrea gave solutions and did her best to help women fight overwhelm in their lives