As most of you know, my rents & Hubs & I completed a
triathlon last weekend. While this event has given me oodles of writing material, enough for at least a month of blogs, I just want to say a little
something quick about legacy… when my dad asked me back in March, to find ‘us’
a triathlon to do, I thought he’d gone crazy. But out of respect for him, I
researched the best little tri in Minnesota, enlisted Hubs to join me &
began training. We trained hard, we showed up on race day & most
importantly, we finished.
My rents have taught me a lot of things over the years… My mom
taught me how to ride a bike & to tie my shoes & to give grace & be
truthful & to read & write & cook & sing. My dad taught me how
to drive a car, to love books & to think deeply & show compassion &
stand up for the least of these & to laugh & laugh & laugh.
Together, they taught me who Jesus is... what real love is… & what a Godly marriage looks like.
They showed me that while sometimes our lives can be difficult,
the way we face it can be an incredible opportunity to look that which seeks to destroy us &
instead draw closer together. I’m not gonna lie, their type of marriage requires commitment
& a stick-to-it-ness that defies all reason. It asks us to show up & work hard at it.
Every day. It asks us to love when we don’t feel it & to extend grace & compassion
when we are annoyed… or God bless us... annoying.
I love the way my dad loves my mom. How he tucks her under
his arm like he’s protecting the most
precious thing in all the world. I love how my mom loves my dad. How she looks
up into his face with adoration & how she laughs at him.
I felt the legacy of their example this past Sunday when I found my own self tucked up under my husband’s arm as we stood in the church pew during worship & again when I found myself reaching up gently & whispering how proud I am into his ear after he preached an amazing sermon. I've
seen the legacy of this love in the way my married son is always drawing his
beautiful wife in close & kissing her forehead. I see it in the way she
looks at him, as if he is the best thing since… well since ever. I see the
future of it in our engaged son & his fiancé as they plan & hope & pray over the beginning of their life together.
It reminds me that what we do & how we do it matters…We can choose to sit on the side lines in fear &
trepidation always holding our loved ones at a distance or we can embrace all that life & love has to offer. We can choose to do scary things so our children will too.
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