on leaving a legacy.

I signed up for Ann Voskamp's newsletter a few weeks ago, and I opted for the one that sends you a bunch of stuff over the weekend, rather than a few things here and there.  It has become a bit of a Sunday morning ritual to sit with my coffee in front of the computer and read the articles and watch the videos that she has chosen to share with her newsletter readers.  One of the links was to a blog post that she had written a few days ago as an anthem for women.  It really encouraged me, and I highly recommend that you go read it first before reading the rest of this post.  I'll wait....

It's so great, isn't it?  That Ann really has a way with words.  My favorite part is where she writes:

"We are the women who make our lives about the cause of Christ, not the applause of men.

We are the women who live to express the Gospel, not to impress the Jones’.

We are the women who live not to make our absence felt, but to make Christ’s presence known.

We are the women who know it’s not about us and all about Jesus. "

So so good.  I thought two things as I read this, and those are what I wanted to share with you here.  One - I really felt convicted that despite my desire to want to share Christ and not to seek to impress others, I realized that part of me still wants to be known and to leave a legacy of sorts.  I want to do something that matters, and sometimes I think it is because I want to be making a difference, rather than seeking for Christ to make a difference through me. Instead, I want to be a woman who lives to make Christ's presence known, rather than to make my absence felt.  The second point I wanted to make is this - I have two young daughters and I want them to grow up to live the same way.  And the best way to help them do that is to model it for them.  I want to show them what it means to be a daughter of Christ and how to live as women that live for His cause and not other's applause.  I want them to learn how to live out the gospel because it is true, and good, and life-giving and not to seek the world's false claims of the same.  I want them to live as women redeemed instead of women still searching for what makes them worthy.  So I need to live all that first - with God's help, to His glory and praise.  That is a legacy worth leaving.