L E G A C Y

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I know it's not Thanksgiving, but a recent conversation with my mom and siblings inspired me to write this post.

We have to give thanks for everything, small and big- the small things like being able to breathe or being able to open our eyes every morning. While those actions seem like simple things, without them, we could not live.

Another big thing that we can easily take for granted we also cannot live without- family. For myself especially, it is easy to take my family for granted because we are all together every day. My mom homeschools me and my siblings, and my dad also works from home. There's a lot of togetherness. It's easy to get annoyed and agitated with your family, especially when you're around them all the time. But who would you be without your family? Where would you be?

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Some people are privileged to have met and even spent time with their great-grandparents. I personally have only met one of my great-grandmothers, and I am sad to say I only have very faint memories of her since I met her when I was quite young. However, my mom constantly tells my siblings and I stories of our great-grandparents and grandparents and their humble beginnings. Though I have never met any of my other great-grandparents, thanks to these many stories, I have vivid pictures of what they were all like in my mind.

Each of my great-grandparents were Christians. They all grew up in India, and they lived in poor families. I think specifically of my mom's paternal grandfather, who came from a family of 12. On top of being from a farming family, there were 12 children to feed, making it even more difficult to get through. Yet, they all made it, got married, and had children of their own- my grandparents and their siblings.

My grandparents grew up in India and each came to America by themselves, hardly knowing the language and with only a few dollars in their pocket. Despite these so-called "setbacks," each one of my grandparents thrived. They were soon married and had my parents and their siblings.

This is where I can brag a little on my parents. My parents have always been involved in the church, especially through music. They sang in church, at conferences, and led worship. My dad had his own band that traveled around just leading people into worship. I don't remember his band since I was only a baby, but hearing people recall the nights of worship they led and how it impacted their lives stirred me.

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We often travel back to New York to see friends and family. This most recent trip, we visited some of my parents' friends, and I was talking to the person who had been the pianist in my dad's band. I told him that I had started writing songs, and he said that his only regret for the band was that they had never gotten the chance to write songs together. I was surprised. I had never even known about this, and yet somehow I had just felt called to write songs.

The Bible talks about how sometimes, we are given promises and dreams, but we may not see them ourselves our do them ourselves, but rather our children will see them come to fruition and live them out.

Deuteronomy 4:40

"So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time."

I feel like that's what's happened to me. My dad's band hoped to write songs, but never got to. Yet, unknowingly, I started writing songs, and I am seeming to fulfill those promises and dreams of writing songs.

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The whole point of me saying all that: sometimes family can get under our skin or just seem like a bother. However, we should have every reason to be grateful for all the family we have in our life, because without them, we wouldn't be who we are. You may be surprised at the incredible family legacy you have, and it should be all the more of a reason to be grateful for the family that you are a part of.

We all have dreams and visions. We all have something that we feel like we are called to do. How are you going to use that dream or vision God has given to you to leave a

L E G A C Y ?