What story do you want your children to tell?

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Here is an irrefutable Life Law.  Eventually everything is reduced to a story.  Yep, all those things we think are so important, no compromise issues... One day they will just be a story someone tells about you.  

Your greatest accomplishments will eventually become just another story you children tell about you.  Of course the good news is that your greatest failures will also be reduced to a story someone tells.  The funny things that happen in life... story.  The hard things... story.  The embarrassing things... story.  All of it will one day be a story you tell and then even less of it will be a story your children tell.  So let me ask you one of the most important questions in life.


What story do you want your children to tell?

As a pastor I've been to way more funerals than most people.  I've listened to the stories people tell at funerals.  I've sat with families in private as they told the stories of their loved one.  You know what I've discovered?  Death as a way of shining a rather glaring light on a persons life.  It sifts our life for the things that really mattered.  It asks the rather awkward question... what did you do that really mattered?  

Once a sat with a family who could only say... he was a good provider.   I figured there had to be more (It didn't leave me much to work with) so I probed further.  Nope, that was it.  He was a good provider. 

Even worse is the family that begins to pour out bitterness and anger when I ask for stories.  He was selfish, she didn't give time to anyone, they had an anger problem they... well you get the idea.  This usually leads to a pretty generic funeral.  

I've also sat with families devastated by the sudden loss of one they deeply loved.  Their grief so strong that it seemed like all the air had been sucked out of the room.  Into this grief I simply say... tell me about your loved one, what are their stories?  

Sometimes they start slow but in just a few minutes they get rolling and the stories begin to pour out.  Stories of the difference this person made in their life.  Stories of their impact on others.  Funny stories that have them belly laughing right smack dab in the middle of their sorrow.  Stories that make me cry.  Often there are stories of things they did that very few knew about but which profoundly impacted the lives of others.  This story time becomes  sacred time.  We laugh, we cry, we remember.  The more the family tells the stories the more they heal and the prouder they become of their loved one.  But in the end... it is all reduced to stories.  

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So here's the deal.  Stories shape people.  The make us who we are and the stories that your children and grandchildren tell about you will profoundly impact who they become.  Your stories will pass to the next generation your values.  

So... what story do you want your children to tell?   Your story is your greatest Legacy.  What do you want your legacy to be?   Would you like to change the trajectory of your legacy?  Would you like to influence those stories?   

For the next six weeks I'm going to be in a teaching series we're calling Legacy, living for something more than yourself.  I invite you to join us and bring along any friends that care about their story.  This will be helpful even if you are not a follower of Jesus and for those of you that are, this is super important.   

If you can't join us in person I invite you to join us online at www.MarysvilleNaz.org and go to the sermon section for Video or Audio of the teaching.