What is Your Legacy?

Leaving Legacy’s like Papa

Leaving a Legacy Like Papa

On Saturday, December 23, Cade dug a hole for Papa’s ashes. As the snow was coming down, our family stood on a hill by the ranch house, beside a statue of a cowboy on a horse; Mama read the following verses:

When a man’s ways please the LORD, he taketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs 16:7 KJV

I will lift up  mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. Psalms 121:1 KJV

After reading the verses, Mama asked us to remember Papa.

As the boys were burying Papa’s ashes, I thought about how he lived his life and how he left his legacy for all of us to live by.

Life is best lived in service to others. Papa always wanted the best for everyone. He didn’t do it for himself. He made sure that we were all taken care of before himself. The best way to leave a legacy is to look out for others.

I love that Jesus told us all to love each other. But he never told us to we had to like them. Liking people really has to do with our emotions, right? Loving people has to do with our actions, right? Papa loved people and he doing good things for them. When we do good things for people and love them, we find ourselves actually liking them. Papa showed this over and over.

What can we take to our grave? There are very few things that we can take with us. Our reputation. Our name. When Papa died, he didn’t take any earthy belongings. He took his reputation and his name. I remember Papa as being honest. I remember Papa doing right, no matter what the cost. I find myself dealing with temptations to cut corners but I was left with a great reminder of why never to do that.

Papa was a rancher. Papa was a friend. Papa was a neighbor. Papa was a grandpa. Papa was a father. Papa was a husband. Papa was a cowboy. In Papa’s life, he took risks in order to gain a reward. In ranching, for example, you must risk your capital in order for you to gain a profit in your bank account. The end of it, is that when we gain, we have more to leave for others.

Papa always reaped more than he sowed. Meaning, he gave what he got. What he put into the ground grew out of the ground. Papa loved and received love. Papa gave his time and he gained time. I believe that we must decide what we want out of life and then begin to sow it. It is black and white and I am thankful for Papa’s example of this.

Papa was a hard worker. He gave life his all everyday. Papa was a true example of “hard work never hurt anyone..” He left a grand legacy for all of us to follow.

Papa never gave up when he failed. I can remember stories that he told about the 1980’s and ranching. It was not a good story, I mean, drought, high interest in banks, cattle were worth nothing, these were just a few of the bad things that happened to Papa on the ranch. They had to sell cows in order to stay in the business. But in all that bad, there was good, Papa never gave up. Ya, it was a failure. Everyone has failures. It’s just a fact in ranch and in life. But he succeeded because he did not give up. He keep going and going. He left a legacy that Cody and I am proud to carry on.

Papa never stopped pursuing his legacy. I can remember Papa, he was sick with cancer, the cancer was all over his body and he would never let that ruin his day. He never stopped his legacy. In fact, it is still growing today through us and his grandkids. He never stopped helping, he never stopping learning, he was achieving things until he died. His example left us with a reminder that there is always time to do more and achieve more, to help more and to serve more, to teach more and to learn more. I can hear him say, “Keep going and grow your legacy!” He definitely left us a lasting legacy.

You see, our lives changed when Papa left but he left us all with a job to do. This post is for him and for everyone that was near to him.

He truly left us all with great example to follow.

I am going to leave you with a few things to think about.

We all want to leave our footprints on this world-to know that our life mattered.

What does leaving your legacy mean to you?

I know that I want to leave my footprint, and I want to make contributions to my future generations. I know that I have started leaving my footprint but in 2018 I want to make sure that it is deeper than 2017!

Are you with me?

Happy 2018!!

New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday! -Charles Lamb