The Legacy

In the book about that family with a mission, vision, purpose, one piece of information stuck with me. They had a familial identity that was strong. They were known for their evangelism work. That was what the family saw their purpose was.

Now, to be clear, not everyone or every family is called into any type of ministry. This author from my childhood felt that was their call as a family and they always made plans at the beginning of each year to improve their skills in their purpose.

My Take-away

Some families have a lot of artist in them. Some families have a lot of math wizards in them. Others are law-enforcement families. That is their legacy. That is what they’re known for. And the families that tend to stand out are the ones who keep working their craft to get better at it.

Sure, every single individual has to do their part to get better at their part, but the whole family has to work as a team to make that environment conducive to the success of all the members.

Example If the family is known as a health care practitioner family and one of the members is a night shift employee… how would it be if the day shift members showed no sensitivity to the needs of the night employee’s need for quiet sleep during the day?

For one thing, that night shift person, if they’re the primary breadwinner, may not perform as well, miss out on a few promotions, make a few on the job errors, all from the lack of sleep. This could have been avoided, the family could have improved their station in life faster… only if the whole family worked as a team to accommodate the needs of each.

In the morning when everyone is up and rushing about as the other is going to bed, if people kept quiet, prepped their things the night before, kept the lights down, that would help the incoming nigh shift person a whole lot. Then, the return favor could be done when the others are crashing for the evening, the night shift person could keep their routine quiet and down for them too.

oversimplified example for sure… however, having had worked nights myself… I can tell you… many families struggle with this very compromise

Bottom Line

At the start of the year, what is the one area of your family’s legacy would you like to see improve? If each family worked on one aspect of their legacy each year, over the course of a life time, imagine the impact, strength, and gains the family will have on themselves and those they influence?

We work hard to be better influencers and leaders in our own area of expertise, but we rarely think about the area of expertise our family has to offer. That’s both to the society as a whole as well as to the members of the family itself.

Not quiet buying into this whole family legacy resolution thing… let’s see if the next page can spark some romantic applications to this concept…