A few years ago, I wrote an article called “Legacies” for Yahoo Voices. In this article, I talked about a family from Kemper County whose parents had left them a lasting legacy of love, pride, and service. How wonderful it must be to be left with a legacy like that. As parents, it is our job to leave a lasting and positive legacy for our children. We should strive to ensure that our offspring is better off than we were to begin with.
Yes,
I know we may have struggled, and many of us feel that our children are not any
better than we are. But, did you ever stop to think how different your life would
have been if you had been left with a positive legacy? Did you ever wonder how
much further along you would be if your parents had provided a better financial
foundation for you?
Well,
I do. I think about all of those people who inherited their grandma’s house or
their parents’ old car. I think about the money I would have saved. I also
think about how much better off financially I would have been if someone had
only taught me to budget my money when I was younger. No, I am not crying over
spilled milk. The past is the past. And, I believe in moving forward. As my
mother once said, you can’t drive a car if you are constantly looking back.
What
I would like to do, however, is ensure that my children don’t have the same struggles.
No, we should no give our children everything they want. No, we should not make
them lazy. Yes, we should encourage them to work and make a living. But, we
should make it a goal to leave them a legacy of honesty, hard-work, integrity,
and financial and spiritual wisdom. We must educate our children on how to
budget. We must teach them how to have a good work ethic. We must teach them
respect. We must teach them be empathic to their fellowman.
So,
as parents, we shouldn’t waste all of our substance (money/knowledge) on
ourselves. We should provide a financial and spiritual legacy for our children.
Luke 15:11-32
Proverbs 13: 22
Proverbs 13: 22
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