Much of our marriage our lives has involved moves, impending moves, possible moves, definite moves and the thoughts of moves. We have lived in 15 different cities in towns, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. We always explained to our boys, home is where we all were together. Home is where we are suitcases, boxes and all.
Many of the houses we owned felt as if it were only a temporary roof over our heads. It took many years for me to put pictures on the wall, buy nice furniture, or plant plants in our yard that took longer than one season to grow. We wouldn’t be there long enough to see the fruit.
On New Year’s Eve, we celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary while attending the wedding of my hubby’s college friend. One of the couples we were talking with was a Jewish couple from New Jersey. Getting to know each other, we covered the usual questions. Where do you live? How long have you been married? How many kids? We had many things in common. The love of our spouse, long marriages, children living their dreams, and a child at NYU. Then the question of, What do you do?
‘What do you do?’ a question that has always been a stumbling point in my life as all I have done is raise our children while chasing my husband’s career. This time I had done something but couldn’t bring myself to professing my joy in writing a book. My hubby took no time to fill in the joy with his support of what I have been doing. We discussed my book and the joy that I felt in it.
We also shared that we were celebrating our 29th anniversary that night. Someone jokingly asked my husband what he had
gifted me for our anniversary. I excitedly told them, he gave me a tree.
Questions followed. Why a tree? What kind of tree? I was stunned when the gentleman from New Jersey told me I was a successful woman. When I asked why he believed that he told us a story, a story he heard as a child. He said it was from the Talmud. It is thought that one is successful if they plant a tree, have a child and write a book. Because of what we had discussed he said my life has been successful because I have left these things as a legacy to my life.
I don’t think that I am successful because I accomplished these three tasks. I know I am blessed. I am blessed that we have a house where we can plant a tree with the hope of the years to come to watch it grow. I am blessed that we have three beautiful children who are now men forging the path to their successful future. I am blessed that I finally obeyed God’s calling to write, to write His message of the immeasurably more he desires to do in and through us. I am blessed that God entrusted me with all three blessings. Leaving a legacy of Jesus’ blessings.
Success is what lives on after us glorifying God!
He gave me a tree! It still excites me to say it and to see it growing tall in our yard. We are praying for avocadoes within a few years.
Making room for Jesus in our lives and loving others because He first loved us is a legacy building life. What is the legacy you are leaving? What is God doing in your life that is helping you form this legacy?
(Every man should) plant a tree, have a child, and write a book. These all live on after us, ensuring a measure of immortality.– attributed to the Talmud and Jose Martí, Cuban revolutionary, and poet.
