Teach Your Children Well!

 Always remember these commands I give you today. Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 

~Deuteronomy 6:6-7

When I was a child, I remember wanting to sit at the adult table at family gatherings.  Their stories always fascinated me and I learned quite a bit just from listening.  It was in listening to these stories that I learned that my Grampa's father abandoned the family when Grampa was in second grade and, as a result, Grampa had to leave school to go to work.  And I learned that he was a "coal monkey" on the locomotives.  Life was hard during the Depression.  As I get older, I like to think I have learned a few things along the way and can share nuggets of wisdom with those coming after me.  

How do we learn if no one will teach?  How can we know if no one tells us?  How can we become wise if we don't listen to the wise?

Here's the point: Your legacy that you will leave on this earth will be what you have invested in others.  Will you teach love or will you teach hate?  Will you teach caring or indifference?

One of the most amazing songs I have heard is a Jimmy Buffet song called, "The Captain and the Kid."  Listen closely to the lyrics and you will hear the tale of an old grizzled Captain teaching a young boy.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtxmgBYlrTs

For the record, I want my legacy to be that, while my name may not be remembered, the investment in the lives who listened and learned were forever changed for the good.  THAT is a great return on the investment.