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Leaving a Christian Family Legacy
By Julie | August 27, 2008
Monday I went to my uncle’s funeral. Marc was not able to go, so I took our two kids and rode across the state with two of my brothers. Sitting at my uncle’s funeral, I was reminded of my family heritage. Part of our heritage is dying at the generations and times change, but it’s my heritage all the same.
My uncle was 83 when he died; he was the oldest in Mom’s family, and twenty years older than her. Their family had 6 kids. Each of my uncle’s sisters have commented on what a wonderful brother he was. My uncle farmed my father’s and grandfather’s land. He was up early every morning for work, to see the sun rise over the pastures. He worked in the heat of horrid summer days, and freezing points of winter. He provided for his family. He was around when they needed him, because he worked the land he lived on.
My grandmother died a few years ago. While she was still living she had filled out a “Grandma’s book of questions”. In it she talks about helping with the family garden as a young girl. She spent hours helping can and preserve what the garden produced. As a girl they bought very little; they grew or made most of their necessities. They even used to clean up flour sacks to make clothes out of them. In the last years of her life, like everyone else, she did not make many things. As her health failed she didn’t even have a garden.
I don’t know what will happen to my uncle’s farm now. His four children have other occupations, so the land will probably be sold or rented out. None of my siblings are farmers. With the changes in farming in recent years, most of my cousins have not carried on the family tradition. Our family tradition is dying as each of us who have chosen to leave farm life for a city. Farming doesn’t offer the security of raising a family, like it once did. Like the rest of America, we buy more than they make now. But it will always be our heritage to be self-sufficient.
But most of all, my uncle, aunts, and Grandparents loved God. They prayed. They went to church. They knew their Bibles and tried to share them with other people. I believe their prayers, and my mom’s prayers, protected us before my brothers, sisters, and I became believers. And even after we believed, but didn’t really know what it meant. They put God to work in our lives, and in our cousins’ lives. They lived their faith as an example of what God is.
My family is not perfect. There have been major squabbles over the years. Heck, even now a few issues are really quite sad. I don’t understand the way things have happened, or why people of faith need to have such struggles between them. My family has been hurt, sometimes by each other, on many sides. I don’t know if all of my cousins are believers, we have a huge family, but most of them are. All of my brothers and sisters are believers, though we worship in several Christian denominations, which has caused a few squabbles as well, and I’d be naive to say all that is behind us. But we do all believe in God.
I find it interesting; the movement to be “green” is the lifestyle people like my grandparents used to live naturally. Now, current culture is trying to get people to go back to it. I don’t know if we’ll convert people. But I do know the legacy I want to continue in my own family is the legacy that’s continued since before my grandparents were born: the legacy of faith. Seeing how many believers we have in our family is proof God was listening to their prayers. And if he honors theirs, surely he’ll honor our prayers for our children.
Topics: Awesome People, Faith, Life and Living | No Comments »
