Finishing StrongSample

Finishing strong is a PROCESS.

In my journey, I’ve discovered that it can be a burden to carry or a weight that builds. It’s a principle that I harnessed in the weight room. You can either allow the increased weight to push you down or build you up. Ultimately, you have the power to choose.

Recently I participated in an event called The Cedar Gate Legacy Journey, where my new friends at The Cedar Gate walked me through a process where I thought through my life and wrote to my children about all the growth that I’ve experienced. My friend Andrew Martin says it this way, “Every child gets an inheritance, but too few will ever receive what it took to gain it.” Legacy is such an important but under appreciated gift that we can give to our kids. It isn’t about the money, as much as it is about the values that were built inside of us through our struggle and success journey. 

I’ve learned that growth is available in every moment, in the good and in the difficult. Even in the moments that feel impossible. When you feel alone, remember that God promises to never leave you or forsake you. The truth is that we may from time to time feel lonely, but we are never really alone.

Think about who Isaac would have become without the story of his father Abraham.  How could Jacob have ever learned to be led by God without knowing how his grandmother Sarah struggled but still succeeded? Boaz may never have allowed himself to marry a foreigner if his father Salmon hadn’t married Rahab. Or what would David have become if he didn’t know about his great-grandmother Ruth?

Too often we skip over the first chapter of Matthew, which shares with us the genealogy of Jesus, because we think it’s boring and the names are hard to pronounce. But hidden within its pages is a Legacy that propelled the next generation farther than they could have ever gone by themselves!

I want MY KIDS to know who I grew to become through it all, more than who I was before it all happened. I want them to be able to taste the struggle through my words and intimately understand that my God (their God) was constantly available to be with me, even in my darkest moments. 

I want YOU to know that I believe God is molding you into something in the midst of your struggle. God’s power is exercised in His ability to see you extend past your yesterday into today and in preparation for tomorrow. 

God is building something in you. 

Ultimately, God is building a Legacy in you that He does not intend for you to wait until you die to leave. Legacy is NOW. If I learned nothing in the passing of my wife Ashley, who I will forever call Sunshine, it is that life is too short to wait until tomorrow. Finishing Strong starts today!

Passing down a true Legacy is one of the most difficult things to accomplish, because you are actually transferring more than just your money. It’s about ALL of your valuables. It was because Solomon knew about his father, David, and the story that his good decisions and bad decisions told that he was able to attain a level of success so quickly after taking the throne.

What if our Legacy could become our secret weapon to give an edge to our children or our future generations that we didn’t have? Would you give it? Would you live it now?

What if our struggles could be turned into blessings?

What if you could catapult the next generation, would you do it?