Make today your masterpiece.
Count it all joy.
Oh, that the well-spring of your heart overflow with praise and thanksgiving.
May our cups brim and cascade onto its companion saucer with great contentment for the bounty of God’s generosity, filling our laps.
May we live this day as if the second hand of our clock is winding down the hours and minutes of our life’s conclusion.
The wisdom of God reminds us to number our days for this very reason, as He alone holds our personal itinerary, which was written in His book from the very beginning.
For this reason…
As an event decorator, I thought it most loving to somewhat prepare for the last remaining event of our lives.
While most would rather change the subject and save the inevitable conversation for when it’s demanded,
I followed the first few steps of our mother and father who gave us children their final gift of selfless love, by pre-arranging those final needs so come their Celebration Day, all we as a family had to do was take our seat.
Through this gift our parent’s taught their final lesson in life;
To remember how God has numbered our days so count them…
To remember how fleeting our time on earth really is …a vapor…
To remember and live life to the full as today could be our last;
So prepare for it…and they did.
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days;
Let me know how fleeting my life is.”
Psalm 39:4 (NIV)
“You have made my days a mere hand-breadth;
The span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
Even those who seem secure.
Psalm 39:5 (NIV)
The well-spring of our hearts has spilled over into the words we leave behind as a lasting testament for our grandchildren etched onto our memorial…
Children are the crowning glory of the aged.
Parents are the pride of their children.
Proverbs 17:6
It is because of an overflowing love for our ten beautiful grandchildren:
Hollis, Cova, Kizzie Mae, Rosalee,
Brooklyn, Brodie, Ethan, Bristol, Ayva and Aubrey
We leave you a legacy rich and full of Godly principles.
That you might know and experience for yourself the marvelous works and heavenly truths of your Creator,
That as arrows, you desire to be launched for a Kingdom pursuit,
To pierce the hearts of others for Jesus.
The second generation of our life is before us.
David and I hold tightly the “baton of God’s truths” and run our race so the exchange of these truths, are successfully passed into the hands of those ten runners forging onward in their race.
This memorial is our legacy framed in the reasons I write…
A former blog which tells the story of our heart.
LEGACY; It is for Them That I Write.
By Lori A Alicea
The benevolent man leaves an inheritance
That endures to his children’s children…
Proverbs 13:22 TPT
What parent doesn’t want to leave an inheritance to his children and children’s children?
I imagine most do.
My husband and I have considered for years the inheritance of our heirs.
At the end of life this side of heaven, two hearts long to bless their family with monetary gifts.
But money pales in significance to the true inheritance of legacy David and I endeavor to leave behind in generous portions for our children and children’s children.
Unless money is sowed into fields of eternal value, once it’s spent, it’s gone.
But a legacy rich and full of Godly principles can remain alive for future generations.
Regarding legacy,
David Green, founder of Hobby Lobby wrote in his book
A Generous Life
10 Steps to Living a Life Money Can’t Buy:
A legacy of true value is a legacy made of more than money.
….
To invest in eternal things is the most important thing we can do with our lives, our energies, and our resources.
Becoming a grandparent changed everything for us.
When our second generation came forth, we took notice the hour glass and its sands of seconds gathering into the mounds of hours, months and years more quickly than before in our youth.
Time revealed its true identity as mere moments of breaths.
The weight of passing on to our grandchildren a lasting heritage weighed heavy on our heart.
We risked the next generation growing up without God if our lives didn’t reflect His image; if we failed to tell the generation in front of us the marvelous works and heavenly truths about their Creator.
One generation commends your works to another, they tell of your mighty acts.. Psalm 145:4 NIV
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done….
Judges 2:10 NIV
Ten beautiful children created in the image of God.
Those kissed and smothered with love inside the womb and out.
Hands already gifted.
Feet with steps already ordained.
Their life already planned and prepared to serve Him.
To know the way they must be shown the way, but who will tell them?
Along with their parents, we grandparents want to do our part in living and leaving a life of legacy before them.
Their legacy began when we were once children ourselves.
As a child with five other siblings, our mother introduced us to Jesus; she faithfully took us to church. Her prayers to keep Jesus alive at home found six children growing up to serve Him the same.
My husband and four other brothers are also God fearing men because of a praying mother.
Parents recognize that children, the “fruit of their womb”, are a gift from God.
Children that are dedicated back to Him, to be raised, loved, nurtured in the way that they should go.
“I prayed for this child, and God gave me what I asked for.
And now I have dedicated him to God.
He’s dedicated to God for life.”
1 Samuel 1:26
BABY DEDICATIONS OF OUR CHILDREN – GENERATION ONE
BABY DEDICATIONS OF OUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN – GENERATION TWO
Children and grandchildren are our arrows; arrows that leave the bow of a praying parent and launched for a Kingdom pursuit that they might pierce the hearts of others for Jesus.
Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior, are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Psalm 127:3-5 NIV
Hence, we grandparents are intent to do our part in living and leaving a life of legacy before them.
It is for inheritance;
It is for legacy.
It is for them that I write.
Part of their legacy are stories, their stories, memorializing the past; their history of a faithful God. That they not forget and lean on these truths when facing familiar mountains of hard times again.
It is for them that I write.
The other day I had a long distance Face-time conversation with my six year old grandson who asks about my blogs most times when we talk; blessing this grandmother with his inquiries. Such big questions for a little boy who has no idea he is mining his own inheritance, his legacy.
It is for him that I write.
On October of 2019, David and I invited our ten grandchildren to be our witnesses at our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Their young minds thought we were getting married, which delighted us both.
Written as a true love story that it was, I documented the faithfulness and goodness of God in our twenty-five years together, words shouted and celebrated from every detail of our special day.
So that in years and decades to come, our children’s children will be reminded of God’s reflection of marriage as an encouragement for their own.
Yes, David Green, founder of Hobby Lobby, you said it perfectly regarding legacy:
A legacy of true value is a legacy made of more than money.
….
To invest in eternal things is the most important thing we can do with our lives, our energies, and our resources.
It is because of an overflowing love for our ten beautiful grandchildren:
Brooke, Brodie, Ethan, Bristol, Cova, Hollis, Ayva, Rosalee, Aubrey and Kizzy Mae
We leave you a legacy, rich and full of Godly principles, that you might know and experience for yourself the marvelous works and heavenly truths of your Creator; that as arrows, you desire to be launched for a Kingdom pursuit, to pierce the hearts of others for Jesus.
All because of Inheritance;
All because of LEGACY;
All because of you I write.
As beautiful as a bouquet of roses are,
God our Valentine says “I love you” with those special someone’s given as our Valentine gift, a present of our favorites to satisfy the longings of our heart.
Because