WHAT WILL YOU LEAVE BEHIND YOU WHEN YOU GO?
I was driving to the lake to meet a friend to go crappie fishing. A song called Three Wooden Crosses came on the radio. It describes four passengers riding on a bus in the dark of night on the way to their destination. There was a farmer, a teacher, a hooker, and a preacher.
The bus driver doesn’t see a stop sign. An 18-wheeler hits the bus. Three of the four passengers die in the wreck. The song says the farmer leaves behind a harvest and a son who would follow in his footsteps. The teacher left behind knowledge in the children she taught. The preacher took his bloodstained Bible and put it in the hands of the hooker. He asked her if she could see the promised land as he passed away.
The song then tells of another preacher later in life at a church service who holds up that same bloodstained Bible that his Momma had read to him.
The lines in that song I remember the most are, “It’s not what you take when you leave this world behind you. It’s what you leave behind you when you go.”
I have been thinking about that a lot.
I thought about all the times I took our sons fishing. We enjoyed many crappie fishing trips together. Bass, trout, walleye, and other species too. They grew into men, married, and had kids of their own. They took them fishing like I took them.
Our son Daron and his wife live nearby. We still fish together sometimes. But he and his wife spend many weekends in Kansas or Texas visiting their kids. Those trips include fishing. There will be a lot more trips when they have grandkids.
His son was on his college bass fishing team. Now, he and his wife fish together. When they have children and teach them to fish, Grandpa will be there smiling.
His daughter is also married. Her husband is not a fisherman. Hopefully, she will get him and their kids out fishing someday. If not, her dad will. Or her brother.
Our son Kelly and his family live in Wisconsin. He loved to go fishing when he was growing up. Now, his family goes fishing together. When his boys were little, we made many trips north to fish. When they get married and have children, their parents and grandparents will take them fishing.
I often think about the legacy of the outdoors I will leave with my family when the good Lord calls me home. I do not doubt that my family will all continue the legacy of fishing and the great outdoors. They will continue to pass it down to each generation. That will be part of my legacy and one of the things I will leave behind me when I go.
The definition of a legacy is a long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, and other things that took place in a person’s life.
What will you leave behind you when you go?
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
“Your legacy on this planet when you leave is how many hearts you touched.” ~ Patti Davis, Daughter of President Ronald Reagan
