The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools.
Proverbs 3:35 NKJV
A legacy is not built in days.
A legacy is cultivated over a lifetime.
The greatest legacy you can pass on to your children and grandchildren is not your money or the other material things you have accumulated in life. The greatest legacy you can pass on to them is the legacy of your character and your faith. Billy Graham, “Nearing Home,” 2011
A spectacular or horrific event may loom large in the formation of a legacy, but it does not have to be the singular defining event in a person’s story.
Perhaps, like me, you have regrets when you look back on your life.
Maybe there were times when you were not living for the Lord as you knew you should.
There were relationships you abandoned, instead of doing the hard work of mending and rebuilding.
Perhaps it was the attitudes that pushed people away rather than drawing them closer.
Opportunities missed because there was no evidence of Christ’s love in your words, attitudes, or actions.
Regrets.
We all have them. Times when we did not show up as we should have. Situations when we intentionally hid our light under a bushel. Maybe it was words spoken in haste, or words left unspoken.
Regrets.
We’re human; we will have regrets. We are imperfect creatures. Behaving imperfectly may be the only thing we’ve ever done perfectly and consistently!
Yes, there will be regrets. But we do not want to leave a legacy of regrets.
Regrets are a favorite tactic of Satan and Self. Both want to distract and discourage us, to continuously remind us of our failures and shortcomings. If we make the past our focus, the legacy of our lives will be riddled with those regrets.
So, stop, please. Stop right now. Don’t focus on your regrets. Revel in God’s grace and forgiveness. Focus daily, one minute at a time, on building a God-honoring legacy that will encourage all who have known and loved you.
How do we redirect our focus?
Hebrews 11 answers that question and offers shining examples of imperfect people who left their regrets behind to focus on God’s calling in their lives. In the end, they left legacies that have encouraged and challenged believers throughout the centuries, even to this day. How did they turn their eyes away from their shortcomings, failures, insecurities, uncertainties, and sins both big and small?
The short answer is simple: “By faith.”
They had faith in God.
Faith that He was, and is, who He says He is.
Faith that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.
Faith that He forgives and forgets the sins that desperately try to hold our hearts.
Faith that He keeps His word and His promises.
Faith that He empowers, rescues, emboldens, shields, protects, and one day perfects every child of His.
Faith that He has something so much better for each of us here in this life and in the eternal life to come.
Heroes of the faith, imperfect like you and me, struggled with past regrets, but they trusted God to be gracious, merciful, and forgiving when they asked for His pardon. Heroes of the faith who moved past their regrets to follow God in faith and obedience, and, in doing so, left legacies of encouragement and testimonies of God’s faithfulness to His children.
Are you building a legacy? Or are you mired down by the regrets of the past?
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV