As I focus on the big picture right now, I am reminded that there is much to be grateful for because I have been blessed. I have visited new places and had new opportunities. I have met amazing people and taught some folks how to see themselves differently. I can only anticipate what is to come, but I know who guides my future and He is faithful.
I am grateful that God listens to me, but still does what He knows is best. He has taken me on adventures where I have learned to do some new things and meet new people. He has insight into me that I seldom see.
This week I am reminded of more things that I am grateful for: family and friends. I have had the chance to share in adventures with both groups. There is always so much laughter with these people, which the Bible teaches us is good medicine.
Many of the things that were accomplished this year were not even on the goal list I planned for 2023. There were some surprises, some disappointments, but over all I can say I am grateful for everything.
I got to complete a bucket list item in 2023. I got to spend the evening standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris with my good friends.
Aside from that, I am grateful that He chooses me. Even on days when I don’t choose me. He chooses me.
I am grateful that Jesus is not like me. He is faithful. This year has been a testament to his faithfulness to me.
Thank you, Lord.
Grateful
Feeling or showing an appreciation of kindess, thankful
For the month of November the most appropriate affirmation for me is grateful. This year I have the most to be grateful for because it has been a learning year. My adventures have taken me down new roads and across different paths.
I love this adventure with God.
This week we studied the Samaritan woman. The thing that stood out for me was her humility. Jesus told her all the things she did wrong, and she said, yep that was me. She didn’t say, “there are other people in the world worse than me.” Being her authentic self-helped her change the lives of all those around her. I hope my authentic self helps change your life.
Some of the things I do will have negative consequences. My choice is not to live in my head repeating my mistakes over and over again.
I have values and goals which I work at on a regular basis, and hopefully they will speak for themselves. I love African American history and want our stories to be told.
I champion justice for all who are oppressed. I try to value the diverse people who inhabit the planet. I hope to impact the world in a positive way. Encourage faith in God who gives us all purpose. I want my life to be about these things.
Legacy
I believe in Jesus. He is why I am. Although I have concerns about my legacy, the ultimate decider of that is the Son of God.
My legacy of faith is that I trust God. What I have learned is that even though I make plans, His plans always beat mine because He makes His plans knowing the future. He has always had better plans for me than I have for myself. He has shown me this over and over again.
I love Him because He first loved me. He taught me what love was. He showed me what love was. He is teaching me to love like Him.
He has made me His forever pupil. I never arrive. There is always so much more to learn. I am good with that.
My faith will be trust, love and continuing to learn.
Legacy
something handed down from the past
As we draw close to the end of 2023, I am thinking about what kind of legacy I want to leave. What am I doing to speak to that legacy? What will I do next year to further define the intent of the life I am living? What’s important?
That is where we will go this month. Let’s explore what’s really important.
2019 will be a fascinating journey for me. It has started with a bang. I have spent the first part of January reading books that take me deep into the jungles of the African continent. I read the story of one of the last people brought to the United States on a slave ship. He spoke of what his life was like before being captured. He spoke of his family and their customs, the rituals to become a man and get married.
More important, he spoke of the process of being captured to be a slave and what it was like watching everyone he loved being murdered. Like the author of the book, for many years I thought that the Europeans had seized the Africans from their native homes. But in Barracoon by Zora Neal Hurston, the old African man told a different story.
He spoke of other African tribes who ruthlessly killed entire villages just to capture the young and strong people to sell to the Europeans. These killers left their regular way of life, which was farming, to become slavers. Motivated by greed, they created soldiers that could terrorize and take out a whole village. These soldiers were paid by the number of heads they brought back. The skulls were collected as a prize by their king.
It made me think. As these greedy people sold off all of their strength for material wealth, they were not prepared to fight the colonization that would overtake and suppress them. It reminds me that the greedy people today won’t get away with their evil deeds. They are just getting prepared to be undone by something more evil than themselves.
Another book took me into a different part of the continent. I loved reading how Nelson Mandela’s father was the family historian. He could recount the family’s history for hundreds of years, yet he could read or write. Our history was repeated by word of mouth through the generations.
It reminded me of my own family who would sit and tell stories of the way it used to be. Even today I question older relatives to the point of annoyance because I want to know more. I want to know what it was like and what they did. But I am finding that some of the secrets older people tried to keep, are coming to light.
But this part of the journey makes me appreciate a history told orally and through art, like masks and other sculpture. It tells us what is beautiful. What is powerful. What is important. The thing I appreciate about African Art is that it finds beauty in the work. It is not an exact replica of someone or something. It just is.
We need to do the same. We need to tell our children the stories orally of our family. We need to create art that represents what legacy we leave behind. Many of the previous generations of my family were poor and undereducated. They did not think they were leaving much behind, but the truth is they left a lot.
I love the story Nelson tells of the first pair of pants he wore. They were not a brand new pair fresh from the tailor. They were an old pair of his father’s pants. His father cut them off so they would fit, and used a rope around the waist to hold them up. Nelson said it was one of the proudest moments of his life.
Think about what legacy you are leaving your family. What kind of objects are you making to represent it? Do your children know your family’s story? Do you? Remember when you carve out your part of your family history, it does not have to look like someone else’s. Like the African mask, it only represents what you want it to.
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