Leaving a Legacy

MomHeart.org has been featuring a series of posts on leaving a legacy over the past several weeks. Here's my thoughts on the topic for their Link Up.

This weekend, my grandparents are in town from Florida. My Grammy is one of the most wonderful women I have ever met and someone I hope to emulate. Her son, my dad, is an incredible man. Then there's me, and then Eli. That makes four generations, which is pretty amazing considering my Grammy is only 70.

I was talking with my aunt today about the legacy that has been passed down through my family. There have been generational strongholds and also some blessings passed down. There's also a whole lot of stubbornness. My aunt challenged me to take the good and leave the bad. Every family has their ups and downs, difficulties and heartbreaks, but something good can be learned and passed down to the next generation. I want to stand in the gap, blocking the generational sin and opening the door to generational blessing. As a mother, this is my battle to fight.

My aunt particularly challenged me about what I am speaking over my son. Are my words to him edifying and building him up, even at 8 weeks old? As she held him today, so spoke to his future; told him he would be a godly man who will live up to his name. She inspired me to begin passing on my godly heritage to him now. I can begin today-- it's not something I have to wait to do until he is older.

Tonight I sit here with tear stains on my face eating my non-dairy brownies right out of the pan and hoping that after a long day of fussiness Eli has gone to bed. (We discovered this week that Eli has a milk allergy and GER.) These days are hard. Really hard. I've been promised that it will get better, that I will sleep again. Yet even on these hard days I love my baby so much. I want to begin even today passing on a godly legacy to him.