My great-grandpa was a man who had always worked with his hands. He was strong. When he gave me this present, however, he was in tears. I remember this clearly but at that age wasn't able to understand why. I received it awkwardly and with little to no thanks. I barely knew him. My mother had explained to me that he had had a stroke and was no longer able to speak. He wanted to give me something special but was unable to communicate to me the love behind it. He was only able to pass it over with a nod of his head and frustrated tears.
I never saw my great-grandpa again.
I was the end of his legacy...the last that he would be able to see and tangibly influence. I keep that doll cradle now as a remembrance of him. I doubt that Addison will ever be able to play with it because of its condition, but perhaps as an adult she will understand that it was crafted by her ancestor. His story is not just about making a doll cradle after having a stroke, it is about what all of us desire deep down...leaving a legacy.
Great-grandpa Goodner left a more lasting legacy, one I hope to leave for Addison. He grew up a half-Cherokee on a farm in Oklahoma several miles from any local town. One day, as a child, he rode his donkey (yes, a donkey) to the church. He rode alone. He chose on his own to follow God with no regard to his parents disinterest. A child coming to the feet of Jesus in a place that probably wasn't that interested in a half-breed poor kid.
That is his legacy. He loved God and his love has passed down to the third and fourth generation!
Deuteronomy 7:9 (NIV)Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
Jason and I have been reading a book called Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas that has shifted something in our hearts about what is important (in parenting and life) and what isn't. Of course, we want to provide Addison with the "American Dream" but in 100 years will that really matter? It has only been 30 years since I received that cradle and my great-grandpa has all but passed out of human memory. I don't know how nice his house was or whether or not he wore fashionable clothes, but I do know that he loved God and he loved his children. Even if I didn't know that from experience, I would know it by the legacy of love that has been passed down.
I tend to think of good parenting as giving Addison a nice life of "things": car when she is of driving age, European vacations, new clothes, good education, beautiful home. But those things don't last! If I want to leave a legacy then I have to think about the intangible: sacrifice, love, patience, kindness, humility, listening heart. The only way that I can give those to Addison is to be them myself. Then in 100 years when no one know who I was, the sacrifice, love, patience, kindness, humility, etc... will still survive.
I want to leave her with Matthew 619-21.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
No one can steal that legacy.
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