"My Child, You Are Loved"

I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
    I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!”
    they’re calling you “God’s living children.”

Romans 9:25 

Have you ever been somewhere that you felt out of place?  I have.  I can remember being "the new kid" in school and felt as though I just crashed someone else's Christmas Dinner.  It's not a good feeling.  Throughout our lives, we will experience situations where we feel out of place, as though we don't belong (and might even be told that we don't belong), but there is one place we will ALWAYS belong and we are ALWAYS welcome, no matter who you are and what you've done.  We are ALWAYS welcomed by Jesus!  Not only welcomed but we are loved!

Hide And Seek

I could ask the darkness to hide me
    and the light around me to become night—
    but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
    Darkness and light are the same to you.

Psalm 139:11-12 

 

I remember playing Hide-And-Seek as a youngster with my cousins and friends.  The best time to play was always at night because it was easier to hide and harder to seek. Then there was the time when one of my friends decided to level the playing field a bit...he brought his Dad's flashlight.  It wasn't just a flashlight, it was a Police Officer's flashlight which could light up the entire yard!  So much for being easier to hide because the night was a bright as day.

 

I used to believe that I could hide things from God.  I would play Hide-And-Seek with Him, or so I thought.  I figured if it's dark, then God can't see me.  And I was wrong!  God knows everything and sees everything or else He wouldn't be God.  We can't hide anything from Him, so why try.  We have been given access to go boldly to the throne of grace and seek His face...so why don't we?  Could it be we are too angry?  Could it be we are too embarrassed?  Could it be we are ashamed?  Could it be we just don't want to face it?  Truth be told, God already knows and, here's the kicker, LOVES US!!!!  Let's embrace His love for us and be bold!

How Could I Forget You?

¹⁴ Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us;
    the Lord has forgotten us.”

¹⁵ “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child?
    Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?
But even if that were possible,
    I would not forget you!
¹⁶ See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.
    Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.

Isaiah 49:14-16 

I am convinced that God placed animals on this Earth to teach us.  For example, Elephants...I like elephants!  A baby elephant weighs, at birth, 200+ pounds and is already 3 feet tall.....right out of the shoot.  The Mom carried this baby for 22 months and only gives birth once every two to four years.  The mother elephant will fiercely protect her child, but will also discipline her child without hesitation.  The love of the mother is evident in the fact she is in her child's life until that child is old enough to be self sufficient. She doesn't try to be her calf's friend or buddy, she takes her motherhood VERY seriously.

Now...in today's passage, Israelites are saying that God has forgotten them.  Guess what?  God never forgets us!  EVER!  Even when we tell Him that we don't want to be around Him any longer, He's still there.  God asks the question, can a mother forget her nursing child?  Think about this, do you think a mother elephant can forget her 200+ pound infant? 

God has written their names on the palms of His hands.  Why is that significant?  Have you ever written something on your palm?  You see it every time your hand is in eyesight so you can't forget.  I've seen Deputies do this a lot!  They write things on their hands so they don't forget and it's always in their eyesight.

God's love and caring is something we can not get away from.  True, He will allow certain things to occur in our lives that make us question whether or not God still loves us.  Truth be told, there is no way God can ever forget us because we are His! 

Second Childhood?

About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Matthew 18:1-4

We are competitive, aren't we?  We'll turn anything into a competition.  Who can hold their breath the longest?  Who can jump the highest?  Who can eat the most ghost peppers and keep them down?  We all want to be the best at something.

The Disciples weren't any different.  They wanted to know who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Somehow, I can picture the smug, over-confident faces of these who asked Jesus who would be the greatest, feeling as if Jesus would pick one of them. And to their surprise (or dismay) Jesus didn't pick any of them; instead He put a child up as an example of who would be the greatest in Heaven.

Why would Jesus do that?  What's so special about a child that they would be the greatest in Heaven?  Think about it!  Children rely on their parents for everything.  Children trust their parents to love them, care for them, teach them, and provide for them.  Hmmm....isn't that how we are supposed to be with God?  Trusting Him for EVERYTHING?

You see, until we come to the point in our lives that we can set aside our own jaded, cynical, self-serving pride, we are not acting like Children of God!  Until we let God do His job and stop trying to do it in His place, we are not acting like Children of God.

We must become like children with God as our parent. THAT is the example Jesus put before the Disciples....and us.  

Teach The Children Well

Teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up. 

Deuteronomy 11:19 

Guess whose job it is to teach children?  Who gets to teach them respect for others?  Who is supposed to teach them about love for others?  Who is the teacher of conflict resolution to children?  Are you sitting down?  WE ARE!!!!  

I can hear it now: "I don't have kids!"  "My children are grown with children of their own." "Those aren't MY children."

I was in an electronics store recently to purchase a charger for my phone when I noticed a child about the age of 8 or 9 demanding that his father buy him a new iPad.  The father told his son that the iPad he already had was only 6 months old, to which the child screeched that this new iPad did more than his "old" one and Dad better buy it for him.  Sadly, I watched this defeated man use four credit cards to find enough credit to purchase this item his child had demanded. 

Guess what?  God didn't ask whose child they are because WE are ALL God's children!  Therefore, those who are older should teach those who are younger.  And guess what is the best teaching method for most children?  They follow the example of others!  Therefore, WE are ALL to teach children about respect for others; WE are ALL to teach children about love for others; WE are ALL to teach children about getting along with each other; WE are ALL to teach children about conflict resolution....WE are ALL to teach children!

Why?  Because if WE refuse to teach children, guess who will?  Want a hint? Turn on the television where children are in charge and parents are idiots with an open wallet. 

We're Different And We're His!

‘By his power we live and move and exist.’ Some of your own poets have said: ‘For we are his children.’ 

Acts 17:28 

 

Let's put on your thinking caps (or have another coffee or two) and ponder something together.  When God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of Life, God breathed into Adam part of Himself.  And that tiny portion of God has been passed down through the generations.  

 

Without God, we cannot live or move or exist.  But because God has given us the Breath of Life, we are His children.  Are we perfect?  Have you ever met a perfect child?  God loves us unconditionally, yet He also loves us enough to correct us.  God does everything to help us grow.

 

Why? Because We are HIS children!

Not From Around Here

Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.

Philippians 1:27-30 

 

Did you know that we are not permanent residents of Earth?  We are merely aliens traveling on a tour for a while (if the Gilligan's Island theme song just hit your brain, stop and sing along).  

 

I remember hearing a story about a man from London who wanted to travel around the American South in the early 1900s.  On one of his ventures, he encountered some difficulty when his car ran out of gas.  He saw a farmer in his field and asked him where the next "petrol" station might be along this road....the farmer scratched his head and thought for several minutes and finally told the man it was about 8 miles up the road.  The Englishman began his trek and after some time later he arrived at a diner with a gas station attached.  To his surprise, his car was already there.  He went inside the diner and asked how his car managed to get to the station when the farmer said the nearest gas station was 8 miles away.  The man behind the counter said, "Ya'll ain't from around here, are you? It's 8 miles when you walk along the road, but when you take the logging trail it's only half a mile."

 

Several years ago, the Doobie Brothers did a song called "Rockin Down The Highway" which describes the freedom of the open road.

 

You see, we aren't from around here.  We are merely passing through.  And here's the main point I want you to remember, when it comes right down to the brass tacks:

 our disagreements don't really matter; 

our anger doesn't matter;

our hurts won't follow us;

our stuff won't go with us;

SO when we keep our eyes on the prize and remember that we are just passing through...we are free to live as Children of God!

This Is Going To Irritate A Few People But.....

Train children to live the right way,
    and when they are old, they will not stray from it.

Proverbs 22:6 

 

What I am about to say will most likely irritate some, but here goes.....  Children do NOT come first in the marriage. I know that isn't what we are being told, but who came first....the children or the parents?  Remember, God?  Didn't He put Adam and Eve on the Earth BEFORE their children, Cain and Abel?

 

Children learn things by watching and imitating, and they soak it all up like sponges!  Don't think so?  How many times have you seen parents portrayed in the media as idiots who teach their children bad habits or that parents answer to the children?

 

Solomon, the wisest and wealthiest person in Scripture, tells us to train children to live the right way so, when they get older, they will know the right way to live.  And just how are we to do that?  By being a living example for them!  We are to EXAMPLE that the spouse comes first in the marriage.  We must EXAMPLE the proper ways to deal with life's issues.  We must EXAMPLE life for our children.  

If we don't example respect for each other in front of our children, we shouldn't be surprised when they grow up not respecting anyone else. Think about it...

 

 

Have You Lost Your Wonder?

And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

Matthew 6:28-29

We take things for granted, don't we?  When was the last time you took a walk just to hear the birds or look at the things that grow?  When was the last time you picked up a seashell and really looked closely at it?  When was the last time you took time to look at the clouds and see what shapes came to mind?

My bride and I love storms.  We are fascinated by them.  Especially the ones with lightning. A few years ago, we lived in a patio home, and we would sit in our garage in our aluminum lawn chairs watching the lightning flashes and enjoying the slow rumble of the thunder and the wind.  It took us a while to figure out that it was probably not the brightest idea to sit in aluminum chairs to watch lightning, but neither of us got zapped so that's a relief.

But watch children.  They are fascinated by everything.  Their minds are like sponges, absorbing and figuring out how something makes sense.  And they observe almost everything (and usually will tell you about it when you least need that information broadcast).

For some reason, as we grow older, we either become jaded or we simply stop looking at God's creation with wonder.  I was sitting in my home office a while back watching the squirrels in our front yard.  They would scurry around picking up acorns then they would scurry off somewhere, dig a hole, drop the acorn in it, cover it back up, and then jump up and down on the spot to pack the dirt down.  It was like watching a circus routine.

On another occasion, I was on a ridealong when the officer walked into a spider web (and, I'll admit, watching this big tough cop do the "Ninja with a bee in his britches" dance was pretty funny).  Within two hours we were back at that same spot and the spider had rebuilt his web!  That fascinated me!

When we lose that childlike wonder of all that God has provided for us (to teach us, or reach us) we have lost one of His greatest gifts!

Kidding

About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Matthew 18:1-4 

One of the hobbies I have acquired over the course of my like thus far, is people watching.  You see, human behavior fascinates me.  Especially in those unguarded moments when we think no one notices.  

I was having a meeting at my Office away from the Office a while back and saw a young lady with two highly energetic toddlers come in, followed by two Soldiers (both Drill Sergeants).  The toddlers were having none of this "wait your turn" thing and insisted on dragging Mom to "look at this" and "see what I found".  I felt so sorry for her.  She kept apologizing to everyone around her for her "enthusiastic" children.

Both of the soldiers smiled patiently.  The children persisted, and Mom kept apologizing.  Just when I thought her last frayed nerve would snap, the soldiers jumped into action.  Both of these Drill Sergeants (who were accustomed to giving orders), got down in the floor with these children and let the children show them everything they found.  Not only that, but they kept the children occupied while Mom had a quiet cup of coffee probably for the first time that day.  

Made me "HOOAH" for the Drill Sergeants for their deeds, and made my heart lift to see Mom getting a MUCH needed break.  But the thing that struck me most was the children.  You see, children are always fascinated with EVERYTHING!

     *     Children aren't afraid to play together.  We are taught prejudices.

     *     Children aren't afraid to see things differently.  Look at how they color pictures.  We are taught that we have to "stay inside the lines because that's how we've always done it."

     *     Children aren't bitter and jaded.  We learn that behavior (and we can unlearn it too).

     *     Children aren't afraid to laugh and be expressive.  We are taught to hide our feelings. 

     *     Children are helpless and need someone to care for them.  

     *     Children are eager to learn.  And usually pick up on things quickly (so be careful what you say and do).

     *     Children aren't afraid to show love.

May God make us more childlike!

Let Our Father Be Our Father

Teach a child to choose the right path, and when he is older, he will remain upon it.

Proverbs 22:6

That great theologian, Jimmy Buffett, spoke of this in his song "Delaney Talks To Statues" where he describes how his daughter talks to statues in her own special way (as children are wont to do), how her childhood was spend enjoying life with her Father and how he would tuck her into bed and think she's growing up too fast.  We never truly believe that we have enough time to share everything with our children that we think they need to know.  

I'll admit that most of the wisdom I was told when I was growing up, I didn't really think was relevant at the time.  HOWEVER, I have since learned that most of it isn't just relevant, it is vital to existence.  Things like "don't jump off the roof, the umbrella is NOT a parachute"; "I don't care what your brother told you, frogs aren't supposed to fly."  

But some of the things are beginning to make sense:

     *  Take time to look around and enjoy God's beauty.

     *  Take time to laugh.

     *  Love others.

     *  Share your life with others.

     *  Talk with one another.

     *  Teach respect and courtesy by example.

And listen to this: Delaney

What Kind of Farmer Are You?

Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 

Galatians 6:7-8

I have a confession to make, I do NOT enjoy gardening in the least.  If I were the only farmer left on earth, we'd starve....that's how much I do NOT enjoy gardening.  I know there are some who find it extremely relaxing to dig in the dirt, swat the gnats, mosquitoes, and whatever other annoying bugs decide to descend upon you, and I am glad for those....I applaud them.....I thank God for these people with every salad I eat!  

Here's a rule of thumb for those who like planting and all that goes with it: "If you want oranges, plant oranges; if you want weeds, do not plant anything."  While, on the surface, this is self explanatory, but if you look beyond the surface, you will see the true meaning: 

          *     Study = Good Grades

          *     Job = paycheck

          *     Teach children respect & boundaries = Respectful & Respectable Adults

          *     Teach children responsibility = responsible adults

You see, if we choose (and YES we do choose by our actions or inaction) to do nothing, should we be surprised when we have a generation who thinks everything is owed to them?

Honestly, I take umbrage with the Halo Orange advertisements that seem to encourage parents to fear their children, while it teaches the children that THEY, not their parents, are in charge.  We've seen it for years, children are smarter than parents.  Children know better than parents.  And parents are too busy, too tired, too career focused, or to apathetic to teach their children the way they should GO!

We get what we plant! And here's another consideration, it's never too late to clear your fields and replant your garden.  

  

Buck Up Buttercup!

My child, do not despise discipline from the Lord,
and do not loathe his rebuke.
For the Lord disciplines those he loves,
just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

~Proverbs 3:11-12

 

We see it every single day.  In fact, we may even be experiencing it first hand.  

 

• A child doesn't get what they want when they want it, so a meltdown ensues.  Parent(s) are embarrassed so much they give the child what they want.  Child learns THEY are in control of the household and the "parents" are merely there to provide every desire.

•  Child makes bad decisions throughout their years of growing.  Instead of holding the child accountable, parent(s) just make excuses and let their child "grow up" believing the world owes them and refuses to ever leave home because parent(s) still provide without any expectation and without any accountability and parent(s) continue to make excuses for their child.  Child learns if parents will buy their excuses there will be no accountability and someone else will always provide for them without the child ever having to provide for themselves. 

 Let's face facts, God can be a God of Tough Love!  And it's going to be uncomfortable when it happens, but God has a plan for each of us and will do WHATEVER it takes to accomplish that plan through you.

• God told Jonah to go preach repentance to the city of Nineveh.  Jonah decided that HIS vacation plans to Tarshish were more important and refused God's instruction.  Do you think God wrung His hands with worry and wept and made excuses and begged Jonah to "behave"?  NOPE!  God sent a storm to destroy Jonah's Cruise Boat!  Jonah guiltily admitted that he had refused God's instruction and was thrown overboard.  As if being thrown overboard into the sea was not bad enough, God sent a big fish to swallow Jonah and hold him inside for THREE days.  And if THAT weren't bad enough, after three days of smelling nothing but fish insides, the fish vomits Jonah out onto the beach.  Now, covered with fish yak and now sand, God tells Jonah to do what he was told in the first place.  God's Tough Love is tough but God's focus is NOT our comfort, but getting His message out.
• God got Pharoah to set the Israelites free from slavery, and the Israelites followed Moses through the desert.  Yet for some reason, after they had seen and experienced ALL that God had done from them (from bringing water to them in the desert, to providing food for them each day, to saving them from the bites of serpents), the Israelites decided they weren't happy with God's plans and made their own "god" to help them and guide them.  So God let the Israelites wander in the desert for 40 years (until that generation had died) before letting them into the Promised Land.

My point is this, God loves us beyond any measure we could ever conceive, yet He will use Tough Love on us.  Maybe it's time we learn from Him and love through guiding, discipline, accountability, and Tough Love, instead of listening to excuses, lies, whines, fake tears, and being fearful of our children getting upset or angry.  God is our Father and He disciplines those HE loves.  Who are we to declare God's way is "too harsh" for our children?

 

Tough Decisions Start Early!

Teach children how they should live, 

and they will remember it all their life.

Proverbs 22:6

Did you know that our children learn their behaviors from us whether we consciously teach them or not?  Don't think so?  Look around!  How many times do we see children who seem to believe their actions have no consequences?  They do what they want, hurt who they want, disrespect, and even kill others but are not held responsible or accountable because the parents will raise a ruckus and file countless frivolous lawsuits, stage marches and protests.....instead of teaching their children that if they want respect, they must be respectful and respectable.

We have a generation of children who are having children because they have been taught that "someone else" (the taxpayers) will pay for them.  We have children with no respect because the parents are "too busy" or "too tired" or "just don't care" to teach children how to be respectable.  We have a generation of parents who want to coddle and worship their children instead of actually taking on the responsibility of teaching their children to be productive members of society.

We have parents who want someone else (school, government, church) to teach their children but never instill any discipline in them.  I admit it, I never did like being disciplined.  I have the unfortunate circumstance of attending an elementary school where my Mom was a substitute teacher.  If I got disciplined at school, my Mom knew about it BEFORE I got home.  When I got home, I got disciplined by Mom.  And guess what?  When Dad got home, I got disciplined again!  No, I didn't get a toy taken away or get grounded for an hour or sent to time out....I got DISCIPLINED!  And you know what? It didn't take me long to get the point to not do that act again.  But today, discipline is not taught or enforced or even considered, because a child acting up is never the child's responsibility to face it's always "someone else's" fault.

A child is disruptive at school and the teachers aren't allowed to discipline the child, they are expected to coddle and ignore the disruptive behavior.  Administrators are not allowed to discipline the child because the parent or parents will be up in arms with lawyers and "activists" shouting, marching and protesting (and suing).  

So when does the spiral stop?  When are we going to step up and say "ENOUGH"! When are we going to hold the parents responsible for not teaching the child and hold the child responsible for their actions?  If you truly LOVE your children as much as you claim, then teach them that they are PART of this world, not the center of the universe.  Teach them to respect themselves by respecting others!

It's not an easy job being a parent.  It's far beyond time for parents to BE parents and stop coddling and worshiping their children.  Remember, these same children who have not been taught discipline will be the people taking care of us sooner than we expect.

Complacent, Apathetic or Alert?

We prayed to our God and stationed a guard 

to protect against them both day and night. 

Nehemiah 4:9 

 

Today's verse was written while Nehemiah and a remnant of the Jewish people had returned to a destroyed Jerusalem in order to rebuild it.  But as they went about rebuilding it, their enemies decided this was not a good idea and would attack the workers and then re-destroy the work that had been done. Lot's of people would have decided that rebuilding the city was just not worth it, and would have gone back into captivity.  But God had told Nehemiah to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and Nehemiah was going to do just that even if he had to do it all by himself.

 

 When I was in the Army (HOOAH), one of my grunt duties was pulling guard duty.  Most of the time guard duty consisted of hiding in the brush, getting chewed up my bugs and critters, dealing with the weather conditions, just so no one would pass into the camp without permission....pretty much routine boredom broken only when someone came to relieve you.  I even had decided to earn a little extra cash by taking someone else's watch for a small fee.  I did this so often that I had a nice chunk of change and had gotten very complacent.  When my Sergeant found out, he made it a point to enter my perimeter without permission and put an end to my little enterprise.

 

 Let's think about something for a moment.  Why would they pray to God AND station a guard? So we don't grow complacent!  We have seen this in the news more and more of late, people getting killed in churches, theaters, at gas stations, at grocery stores...the physical threat is very real and we need to be on our guard.  BUT what about the movies we watch, what about "I'm too tired to discipline my kids", what about "If the store gave me too much change, too bad for them", what about "everything's going my way so why pray."  

 

We, as a society and as Believers, have become complacent!  We have not only let our guard down, we have fired our guard because "it can't happen to me."  And when something bad DOES happen, what do we say? "How could God let this happen to me?"  Hmmmm.....

What Is This 'Rest' Thing?

So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

~Genesis 2:1-3 

 

I've seen it, and done it...eating lunch at my desk; working while "at lunch"; working 'vacations'; always busy; always working....and always extremely stressed!  I'm doing a little better with it now, but it is still a struggle.  

 

Let's face it, there's SO MUCH we have to accomplish so:

     * we work more than we are paid to work, 

     * we sleep less than we need to sleep, 

     * we ignore our family, 

     * we ignore our health, 

     * we ignore everything except the "TO DO" list that only gets longer.  

 

And we wonder why people have breakdowns, heart attacks, ulcers, GCA syndrome (Generally Cranky Attitude).  We stress because our stress is making us look old.  We stress because if we aren't stressed then people might think we were (dare I say it) not working hard enough!  After all STRESSED = WORKING HARD.

 

We are willing to take the world on our shoulders hoping someone will notice how hard we are working and how busy and burdened we are, but at what cost?  Is it worth your health?  Is it worth your life? Think about this...if stress kills you, and it can, will your "TO DO" list go away or just get passed off to someone else?

 

I tried getting away from the office with some coworkers during lunch, but when you go to lunch and talk about work...what's the point?

 

Listen to me VERY carefully.....EVEN GOD TOOK A DAY OF REST!!!  EVEN JESUS TOOK TIME AWAY FROM HIS WORK!!!

 

Grampa told me that your legacy is what people remember about you after you die.  What legacy will you leave?  Will your legacy to your kids be that you were never there for them?  Will your legacy to your spouse be that you were gone when they woke up and not home yet when they went to bed?  Think about your legacy!  How do you want to be remembered? 

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.