Have you ever looked at people and wondered ‘What will be their impact on this earth?’ ‘Will anyone know that they were here?’ What is the significance of each of these people? I have often wondered this.

I know that they are loved by God and they are eternally significant to Him. But He is omniscient (all-knowing) and He is omnipresent(present everywhere). But if we want our lives to really matter to more than just the infinitely loving heart of God then we need to think long term. We need to think about our legacy. What are you sending into the future? 100 years from now will anyone even know or care that you ever lived?

Recently I made a decision about what I want to have on my tombstone: I want it to say ‘Joseph Barlow 1962-20??’ and that's it because if they don't know me from some other way then it is not going to do them any good to know that my body is laying there. I want my life to be significant. I want it to matter. 100 years from now I want my impact on this earth to continue.

Do you?

Think about your legacy.

Think about what you are sending into the future.

The best way to send something into the future is to give it to someone who will be there. My children will outlive me. Hopefully by many, many years. Their children will outlive them by many, many years. So I want to pour into my children things that are worth keeping and things that are worth passing on to their children.

But what about people who don't have any children? I would say that we all have children! And you would probably say ‘Joe, you are crazy!’ But I'm not crazy, if you think about it in this way: Children are the ones that you have helped to raise. Children are the ones that you have put something into to carry on into the future. Children are the messengers from the present to the future. And if you share things with people and they carry them forward into the future and they deliver them to someone else, then I can tell you this my friend, your life is significant. Whether you have natural children or not. It does not matter. What matters is, are you putting anything into anyone else?

That is what legacy is all about.

Written by: Joseph Barlow