Leaving a good name or reputation for upright and Godly living as well as just pure goodness is the mark of a life well-lived. It is called Legacy.  The goal of every wise parent or Christian is to not just leave our children better off than we found ourselves but to set a standard towards which they may attain. (Legacy (Webster’s Dictionary) is defined as ‘something transmitted by, or received from, an ancestor or predecessor or from the past”.)

There are two types of legacy. We see the legacies of millionaires, billionaires, and celebrities, many of whom may have had a somewhat moral or even Christian compass at some point in their lives. Brittany Spears, of all people, used to sing in a Southern Baptist church choir in Texas. These people never passed on Godly teaching or values from the Bible to their children, because they themselves were never saved. What then happens is chaos, after their heirs inherited their riches. They soon fritter away their parents’ “legacy” with decadent lifestyles and immoral living. On the other hand, we have the legacy of a great American like Jonathan Edwards, who is well known for preaching the greatest sermon ever in the United States of America!

“Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” was preached in East Windsor, Connecticut in July 1741 and was responsible for 500 new souls being convicted and being saved in one service. (Pastor Jonathan Edwards read his sermon monotone, almost without looking up, due to his near-sightedness, while holding his notes close to his face, as an aside.) Here is the legacy of Jonathan Edwards: They were able to locate and research 1,394 of his known descendants. Thirteen of them became college presidents, 65 college professors, 3 United States Senators, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, 60 physicians, 75 army and navy officers, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 authors of prominence, one Vice-President of the United States, 80 public officials in other capacities, 295 college graduates, among whom were governors of states and ministers to foreign countries. (Source: America is Too Young to Die by Leonard Ravenhill, Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, 1979, p. 112)