Some people spend their entire lives developing a legacy that can be passed onto future generations when they are dead and gone. I see the value of that in one sense, but may I suggest that it is far better to develop a heritage that can be enjoyed by both you and your offspring while you are still alive?
One of my open secrets as a parent was to develop businesses that I could operate with the aid of my children.
So today, after spending four hours with my family working on our business, and not simply in it, revealed to me yet again as to how rich I am at my current stage of parenting.
How many of my peers have the opportunity to sit in a comfortable resort-style setting sipping coffees and eating lunch with their children mapping out our futures together in business and in life in general on a week day morning? To be in a place where I am speaking to my children as peers and not as a father to a child.
All I can do is agree with King Solomon who once wrote ‘so I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage.’ Ecclesiastes 3:22
This in essence is what a living legacy is all about – more than just deceased property, leftover bank accounts, wills and inheritances – but rather the most precious gift given to me – to be able to spend time with my family, while I am breathing here on planet earth. To dream dreams with them. To cry with them. To laugh. To pray. To hope. To build. To shape. To mould our futures together, and at the end of each day to look at what we are building and rejoice.
And for those of my family whom I don’t get to work with yet on a daily basis, I ensure that I regularly take out time to nurture their dreams and to support them in their pursuits, so that they can live in God’s best for their lives.
That to me is what building a rich heritage is all about.
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