Psalm 127:3-5 Children are God’s love-gift; they are heaven’s generous reward. Children born to a young couple will one day rise to protect and provide for their parents. Happy will be the couple who has many of them! A household full of children will not bring shame on your name but victory when you face your enemies, for your offspring will have influence and honor to prevail on your behalf!
Thinking back on my life today, I see a perspective of heavenly hindsight that warms my soul. I was not born with a “silver spoon” in my mouth. We were a big Italian family, poor and happy. My reality of truth was not influenced by what I thought I needed to be happy, it was inspired by the true contentment of unconditional love, that needed no earthly prop to bloom. I was given the heirloom of a servant’s heart full of encouragement and this was the greatest legacy anyone could receive. The love, respect, care, and value I was gifted, is a heart heirloom that will be with me forever. It matters that we are in the moment with our children and grandchildren, and it matters that we are encouraging everything unique about them, respecting the plan God has for their lives and honoring them with the words: “I am so proud of you.” It truly matters that we live in the moment with our identity wholly-holy in God, and our hearts extended towards those around us.
We all have a living legacy to write and because of my childhood, I know without a doubt, there is no amount of money, prestige, titles or things on earth that can surpass a living legacy of love received through the encouraging support of a dad, mom, grandparents and family. If you are a single dad, or a single mom, or married parents, you are enabled to love, you are equipped by God every day to add value to your children and grandchildren’s lives. I have the gift of that legacy, it is living in me, it is a sweet heart heirloom that I hope to pass down as I encourage my family members, the way I was heartened throughout my life. I still hold tightly to this gift of a living legacy, an heirloom of Godly character, a servant’s heart, an encouragers soul, which was gifted to me by my parents, who knew the value of encouragement. It was their belief in me, this parental inspiration, that helped me make the right choices and added a tenacious courage to my life, to be all that God had designed me to be.
Recently, I saw a picture of my husband and my first granddaughter when she was very little. I immediately thought about the time that had flown by so quickly, next year she will be a Senior in High School. But, what trumped that thought, as I looked at the picture of this beautiful little girl, is that the passage of time had not eroded the spirit of love, compassion and caring that God has shaped in this precious granddaughter, it still brilliantly shined. She has a heart heirloom. I know her life has been watered over the years with encouragement, because of us who sprinkled and splashed inspiration all over her as we grew, doing life together. Encouragement matters. The moment you are in matters, so add value to the person in the moment, with you. Gift your family with a heart heirloom they can remember you by. Pray you will be a person of Godly characteristic so they can walk in the wisdom of your living legacy, which you have sacrificially shared with them as you supported and cared for them.
Things on this earth, don’t always work out the way we plan. The human condition, it fails us. Yes, no doubt about it, our creative God design is made up of flesh and our flesh, it may fail us at times. Our human nature, it fleshes out, but our redemptive God nature, written on our hearts, it rises above human failure and gives us a new day. On this day, our failure prone human condition does not hold down God’s created characteristic in our spirit, nor does it stop God’s ability to equip and shape our living legacy. No matter what our past looks like, no matter what we are growing through, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, His heirloom of tender love and kindness can be shaped in our hearts and we can leave a living legacy for those we influence daily. We can selflessly love. We can bestow honor. We can respect. We can have self-control. We can love like we have never failed in love, because in Christ, we can do all things well. Jesus makes us best. If you have not loved well, draw a line in the sand and make today, the day you begin to be in the moment with those God has given you to serve, love, encourage and care for. This is a new day.
We can get so sidetracked by a competitive world with a win at all cost nature. This is the culture we live in, it is fast and furious. In this cultural wartime, where what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right, we can easily be disrupted in our vital-vertical relationship with God and lose our way to being the people God designed us to be. Our God shape can get disordered, if we focus more on this world and less on God, His way, truth and life. Life is truly not about money, things or winning, it is all about us influencing those God has entrusted to our care, with the reality of His truth and lavishing them with love and truth. Every moment matters, and we need to be present with those whom God has put us with. Love well, the ones you are with. One of the tactics of our enemy is to disrupt our God purpose with his dysfunctional fear, and anxiety ends up controlling us. Fear should be dealt with quickly, it distorts reality and creates an irrational control over those God has put in our life path to nurture, grow and inspire. A living legacy of love and support is the purpose of our living and being. Is this God purpose shining out of the darkness of your life-path? Are you in surrender mode, or are you in choke hold mode, micromanaging everyone and everything out of fear. What will your legacy be? What will others remember about you? What heart heirloom are you passing on?
When we step out onto a life-path in difficult seasons, we can be assured the stumbling blocks of strife, fear and doubt will be waiting to pounce us. This is where we fight the good fight of faith in a vital-vertical relationship with God. God is in our every moment, are we present with Him? Our life-path can become a crooked way and hard to follow during these lifecycle situations that we have not planned on, which create incredible soul-discord, spiritual conflict, and relational strife. Yet, our Way-Maker God is with us, our Advocate will make our path straight, no doubt about it. Been there, seen it, lived the reality of this truth, that God is more than able to make crooked places in our life, Kingdom straight. God will teach us to be best when our life situations could be much better, we must surrender wholly-holy to God. We can’t let strife control our moments with those we are destined by God to encourage and lift up. Strife, when reacted to with anger, fear and control, will kill hope, steal peace and destroy joy in your relationships. The enemy loves to steal peace from us, kill all of our hope and destroy our family heirloom of a servant’s heart, as he turns our mouth into his weapon, a hurtful, devaluing tool of the enemy. It is hard to take back words that have devalued another person. Don’t underestimate the control and authority of God, respond to Him when life seems to fall apart and what you planned for is no longer a viable option. Wait on God, trust in His Holy Spirit and believe Jesus. God’s gotcha. He is in every moment you are living and He will grow you through it in that way only He can. Trust Him. He has shown how much He loves you. Wait on Him.
Strife is a horrific tactic of our enemy because it characteristically causes us to lose sight of the purpose of our influence, of the creating of an heirloom of treasury for those God has put in our lives to love, encourage and grow through with. We can’t lose sight of the purpose of leaving a living legacy in the hard times of our lives, we must stay constant and true to the character of our God, to the heritage of service and sacrifice, our living legacy, Jesus, left in us. When the heat of trials and strife raises its ugly head on your life pathway, will you react in the flesh or will you respond to God first? Godly response to all things in this life is an heirloom of trust we can leave, it is a legacy of right living for our children and grandchildren. Will we be remembered by an ugly, grouchy and hurtful temperament, or will we be a living legacy of peace, joy, hope, trust and love? Which one will our children and grandchildren remember us by? Will we be remembered for the devalue of their lives, or will we be remembered by the value we added to their lives? The choice is ours and I pray we choose to add value and life, leaving them a heart heirloom, an eternal treasure that this world can’t corrupt or destroy.
Oh, what a gift a Godly, living legacy is. Believe me I know. I have an heirloom. I still hold onto the gift of wisdom, encouragement, love and compassion, a living legacy of my mom and dad. I deeply respect and honor them for the way they consistently raised up a standard of righteousness that was a strong boundary for me to grow up in. I hold it very tightly; my heart heirloom and I live in the light of it as it still influences my life. I am a servant leader, a tender warrior for God and I value truth, I value love, I value civility, I value peace, I value adding value to others, because this is the heart heirloom that was given to me. No matter if you are a dad or a mom, or a grandparent, there is no greater gift you can leave to your family than an heirloom of a living legacy. There is no amount of money or worldly things that could even come close to the value of an heirloom of right living gifted to you from a family member.
Three things that tear apart families today are: Dysfunctional Fear, unrealistic expectations and distrust that erases dependence on God. There is no doubt about it, our purpose can be derailed by these three devices of our enemy. They cause us to cling to all the wrong things in this life and focus us on human doings, instead of being found in God; our identity wholly-holy in Him. Fear is the stealer of our heirloom. Fear causes us to do irrational things, causes us to control others in dysfunctional ways through anger and sick, regurgitated emotions. The enemies schemed intention is for us to live in the grip of fear, a fake reality he has set into our mind through assumptions, speculations and false narrative. The root of fear is unbelief. Unbelief spawns idols and before we know it, we are bowing to this world, with a silver spoon mind set, pursuing unreality, money and things that will never be able to quench our fear. Dysfunctional Fear is emboldened, not by courage, but by control. The human condition is controlling in a sadistic and harsh way when it is under the influence of fear. Fear impacts all those around us in a dead-end life cycle as we continue to strive to make our own way because we are discontent with God’s plans for our life. Fear is exhausting, and exhausted people are angry, bitter and hateful. Nothing we do out of fear, anger or control, satisfies us or leaves our soul content. Fear pushes us into a false dependency on self, where we falsely believe we can control everything and work it out our way, that is until we crash and burn. A fear driven person will not leave a living legacy. Fear is a dead-ended way of life and devalues all who are controlled by it. Shake off all fear and fully face God and know the freedom His truth and love brings.
Belief in God is the cornerstone of a living legacy. We must check our hearts to make sure there is no gap between our belief and our believing. We can believe in God, but do we believe God? This is an important stipulation. We believe in God and we believe God, this is the sign of an undivided heart of trust. Belief emulates compassion, wisdom, love, courage and active faith. Belief is the first step of leaving a spiritual heirloom to those you love. Jesus even spoke it from His own mouth when He walked this earth and He encouraged us, that all He has asked us to do is believe. Do you believe Jesus? You can believe in Him, but do you believe Him? Belief is followed up closely by faith, we can have a wholly-holy trust that develops, increases and stabilizes our faith in this topsy-turvy world. Faith is the action of trust, we activate our faith, because we believe. A consistent, active faith is the accomplishment of trust. As we trump fear with courage, and boldly take steps of followship, moving forward in trust and believing God, we stay purposefully on course with God’s way, truth and life and we sport a living legacy that leaves a heart heirloom for the next generation.
Our personal relationship with God feeds our inner-being, nurturing our spirit-soul and giving us a wide-open heart and mind to God. This assures us that we will be leaving a heart heirloom to those God has placed in our sphere of influence. We don’t lack anything we need to be a living legacy to our God given family. We are perfect in shape, design and destiny for those in our family. God knows exactly what they need, He created them, He shaped them and put us together as a family, to love, encourage and add value to each other. We are all God ordained to be a living legacy and leave our family with a heart heirloom this world can never tarnish, a legacy they can proudly display, and hold tightly to their heart in peace, joy, hope and faith.
The Author Table is a special table in The Bridegroom’s Café, it is flavored with the personal touch of my life journey, so you get a sneak peak into what makes me tick. I hope you were blessed today by my sharing on Heart Heirlooms and hope it inspired you to be a person who is in the moment with God and others and adding value to God’s Kingdom and other’s lives. God bless you Much, KimberlyMac (PS) I highly recommend you purchase my book, The Bridegroom’s Voice. Take a look at “The Overview” of this book, it will definitely help you see the value in taking a Journey with Jesus through this book. I know it will bless your life.
