Living your best life paves the way for your kids, grandkids, and others. Walking in love, kindness, and humility leaves an imprint on those around you to do the same.
What does this look like? How will our efforts create a legacy? Will anyone even care?
I’m exploring what it looks like to work toward living wholly and holy.
It’s only taken 60 years to learn that freedom is from God.
It’s only in the last twenty years I have learned where my identity comes from. God intimately knows me and shows me daily that I belong to Him.
Legalism ruled my life for so long due to how my parents raised me. In their defense, they were raised the same way. I now stand on the foundation of their early childhood choices.
I needed God’s firm foundation and my parents provided it.
Living your best life is not just the choices made for you in your growing-up years, but the ones you choose to make as you learn about the goodness of God.
As you continue to learn and grow as God’s child, your choices influence who you are and those around you.
How Do Your Choices Influence Your Best Life?
I would like to believe I always have my best interests in mind when selecting the next right thing for my life.
Cue a face-palm emoji!! 🤦🏻♀️
Just like you, my imperfect humanness blocks my vision and clarity more often than I would like to admit.
When it comes to living my best life, I am easily swayed by the flashy ways the world gift-wraps opportunities.
Instead of choosing peace, I may reach for busyness.
Instead of starting my day in quiet stillness with my Father, I may choose to tackle my to-do list immediately.
Or, my choices may look like not taking good care of the one body God created for me.
Can you relate to any of these?
God calls us to choose Him first: His truth, His love, His grace.
Jesus tells us, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NIV).
When we turn to Jesus first before taking our next step, we have full access to the Father, who in turn guides us with His truth.
Just think, your next move may look very different because you acted upon faith and not impulse.
Your Best Life is a Gift
I just spent a week with my family in the mountains of Tennessee. We gathered in a beautiful cabin, all eight of us. Each morning, the grandkids followed me with their eyes or their whole selves when I emerged from my bedroom.
It reminded me again of how the next generation is watching. My grandbabies see me, the whole person, and observe my actions, words, and depth of love.
The next generation is watching. The responsibility is weighty. But then I ask myself "Why wouldn't I want to help lead the next generation straight into the arms of truth and love?" Living Your Best Life Click To TweetLiving your best life creates a path for those watching and listening to do the same.
Your brave step is needed. Your sacrifice is noticed. The next generation is watching.
Living your best life is a gift for you and those who see you taking the next step.
In Psalm 78, God established a testimony in Jacob and a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach their children.
It continues with,
“that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments” (Psalm 78:6-7, ESV).
This is what living your best life is all about. Future generations need you and will benefit from your willingness to go first.
What does this look like in your life?
Equipping and empowering women to live life well!
Mary, ‘living your best life’ has always seemed like such a self-focused phrase. So I LOVE the way you’ve turned it upside down and inside out. It’s all about those around us, a lifestyle, a legacy, a gift we give to others.
Thanks for this. It’s given even more value to the weeks spent with the kids and their kids this month. Bless you for this insight, friend.
You’re right. This post could have led you down the path to self-indulgence but when you add God in the mix, He flips everything around. I am thinking about the next generation and how what I am doing now prepares the way for them. It is daunting and exactly what God is calling me to do. Thanks for your input as always.
Mary, such a beautiful post. It took me until my mid-thirties to really understand that my identity came from and is rooted in Jesus. I love the reminder that there are times when we go first on a new path. Others watch and learn and sometimes follow. Doing this is definitely taking a brave step. I’m pondering this thought, my friend.
I’m glad to know that I am not alone in knowing who God says we are at an older age. Identity is so integral to our lives and when God showed me that I belonged to Him, it changed everything. I pray you learn how God is using you as both of your sons are growing and moving into adulthood. They see you and are learning how to step off the foundation you and your husband provided to their next right thing.
It is a little scary to think how much children notice and how much of an impact we can have, but when we influence them well it is certainly something God can use. I love that you have that kind of relationship with your grandchildren. And I love the words of Psalm 78. It is one I always come back to.in the work I do. Often I am trying to pass on something of God’s truth and love to children who would never have the opportunity to learn about it in their family setting. It is sad that so few children hear do have that opportunity within their family, but it is a privilege to try to fill the gap in some small way.
You are doing good work for the kingdom. I know the children you minister to are learning and growing from your influence. They are watching and it is a gift to stand in the gap for any child we come in contact with. It was so good to hear from you today.
I love the picture you painted of your grandchildren eagerly greeting you when you came out of your bedroom! Recently I was late to my granddaughter’s band concert (due to road construction), and the first thing she said to me after the concert was “You were late!” Gosh, I was at the very back of a dark auditorium, but she saw when I arrived! So true that are grandkids are watching, and we may be even more important to them than we realize!
Our grandkids notice everything. My three are still young but I can just imagine what it will be like as they get older. Thanks for stopping by. I pray all of the new things you have in your life are falling into place.
Mary, this is just beautiful. “Your brave step is needed. Your sacrifice is noticed. The next generation is watching.” I am so grateful for the wisdom you share and the challenge you provide. We’ll be taking a family vacation soon, and I know eyes will also be watching. I love that portion in Psalm 78. May we faithfully pray for our families and the future generations to know Him!
Hi Joanne! Knowing our grandchildren are watching and learning from us is a gift. I also believe it feels like a big responsibility. I pray your family vacation is a time of fun and growth in your relationships. I am joining you in praying for our families and future generations.
I read the challenging thought recently that we don’t get our parental report card until the grandchildren are in the kingdom of God! Standing on the top rung of life’s generational ladder is a vulnerable place but I want to embrace the challenge.
That thought can really stop you in your tracks. I love the image of standing on the top rung of life’s generational ladder. I feel like that’s where I am currently. Since I don’t love heights it is a tenuous place for me to be. However, with God, it is exactly where I need to be.
Mary, one of my grandmothers loved me in a way the left a lasting impact on me. She spent time with me doing things I liked. I’m so thankful for her. The Christian life is certainly a journey in which we continue to learn and grow.
What a gift to have known your grandmother and to spend time with her. I did not know either of my grandmothers.I agree that the Christian journey is one of growth throughout our lifetime. Thank you for stopping by.