A Fresh Cup of Coffee

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Tell Us About . . . Legacy: A Positive Impact

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Leaving behind a legacy could mean property or financial assets passed on to descendants, but I suspect that more people think of the definition listed second in the dictionary I consulted. It mentioned the lasting impact of events or actions, and also the impact a person's life can have on others.

I found it a bit unsettling to ponder the legacy we'd be leaving, since our financial balance sheet doesn't look particularly profitable at the moment. As far as I know now, there won't be millions of dollars to distribute to our children and all our favorite charities. We don't have a piece of property that's been in the family for many generations that will be pass down to the next generation. So what will we have to pass along?

I thought of our house. I hope it will be paid off by the time we pass away, but it's not really the monetary value of the house that I'm focusing on. Sure, it would be very nice to gift our children with a little piece of land with a house on it that they can live in or profit from, but I'm really thinking more of that place as a home base. A home. And the legacy of experiences and memories, and hopefully of positive examples and values.

Family ties and relationships fit into all those categories. I hope we're passing on a legacy of a loving and secure family home that was warm and welcoming, and that the memories we made and are making will be of happy experiences. Family traditions can be developed intentionally, like the ways we celebrate holidays or establish house rules, or can become established organically, like the interests we share and find ourselves doing together regularly. Our family has some holiday traditions and some everyday traditions that I think are positive―and fun―and I hope are viewed positively by our kids. Things like family dinners, birthday and holiday celebrations, family outings, and serving and working together can be wonderful family legacies.

(See my older related posts Table and Auxiliary Kids)

Homeschooling is something that is a little more unique to our family. My husband and I decided that taking personal responsibility for raising and educating our children according to our values was one of our highest priorities, so that's what we did, and it was something new, something no one in either of our families had ever done. That experience growing up is now part of our adult kids' legacy, and I wonder if they will pass it on? As far as I know, they all view it as an overall positive!

Life values like respect, responsibility, kindness, generosity, curiosity, joy . . . and so many more . . . I hope these values are part of our legacy as well. Despite all the times that I've failed to demonstrate good and godly attitudes, or have managed to behave negatively instead, I hope that on balance the good is what will be remembered, and that we raised our family to value these positive things as well. Showing up and keeping commitments, doing our part to make the world a better place, practicing hospitality, focusing on the positives of life instead of being pessimistic and gloomy―these are character traits that we learn and can teach by example so that they become part of the personal legacy we pass on.

Without personal faith, those character values are pretty hard to develop! So of all the kinds of legacies we can leave, a legacy of faith and trust in God is the most important. We know that each of us must make our own personal decision and commitment to follow Jesus, and none can ride into heaven on the coattails of our parents or anyone else. But we can share our stories of both struggles and victories and how God has worked and is working in our lives. We can teach our kids the Bible and take them to church, and live what we believe to the best of our ability.

One of the first thoughts I had about this topic was a memory of this song from years ago. I remember singing it a special in church a couple of times, so even though I haven't heard it in ages, some of the words and enough of the melody came to mind immediately that it wasn't hard to find the lyrics and the recording. I think it sums up my thoughts well to include part of the lyrics here.

Children see us as we are

Not a distant star in their eyes

There's no pretending

Their lives are waiting to discern

All that they can learn from us

And who we've trusted

Love has to make a choice

Following one voice

That our hearts long to hear

Just to know

That everything we've done

Every word we've said

Every song we've sung

In this world

Where truth is hard to find

All we have to offer

Is the legacy we leave behind

We want you to find us

Living what is true

Lord, remind us

Of who we are in You¹

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable―if anything is excellent or praiseworthy―think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me―put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

~Philippians 4:8-9~

The apostle Paul seemed very confident that his life and teaching was a positive reflection of living for the Lord that he told the churches they could follow his example. And yet he knew his own past and his failings and didn't shy away from those. He knew that the legacy he was passing along was not his own goodness, but the goodness of God in his life. That is the most valuable legacy any of us can leave, the example of who to trust and follow.

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

~I Corinthians 11:1~

Tell Us About . . . is a monthly opportunity for bloggers to showcase their creativity. Each month one of the co-hosts will choose the word to focus on. On the third Thursday of every month we'll respond to the prompt "Tell Us About ---" which could be absolutely anything. And how we respond is also wide open. It could be a blog post with our opinions or reminscences; a poem, photos, a short story or whatever takes your fancy―it could even be a mix of all these! This month's theme is "Legacy" and our hostess is Leslie from Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After.

This post is linked at Tell Us About Legacy.

¹Source: LyricFind; Songwriters: Dick Tunney/Melodie Tunney; Legacy lyrics © Capitol Christian Music Group, Capitol CMG Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group

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Everyday Images #18

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Welcome to another installment of my challenge and reminder to myself to take photos somewhat regularly. I went through past photo challenges and came up with a list of prompts at the beginning of the year and am trying to find opportunities to take pictures of these things each week. These were the prompts I assigned myself for the past couple weeks:

September Prompts - Everyday Images #18

~~~~~

house (quarterly)

muted

ink

lock

corner

checked

~~~~~

house (quarterly) - I remembered to take the photo on a bright sunny day!

muted - As we drove across the bridge from Ontario to Michigan, I snapped a quick photo through the car window. I chose it for "muted" because that's how the colors turned out with the cloudy sky and it shows an attractive skyline view of Detroit. The parts we drive through are not particularly attractive, shall we say, so this is a nice contrast.

ink -

lock -

corner - I found this really nice room divider screen by the trash compactor! It does have a bit of the lattice damaged but other than that it's in great shape, and it's a solid piece. The only trouble is figuring out where I want to put it. It's temporarily creating an extra corner near the door.

checked - new pajamas

And a few bonus photos, all for the 2023 Summer Scavenger Hunt hosted by Patio Postcards. This Scavenger Hunt began on June 1st, and I found it a couple weeks ago. So all my photos were taken between June 1st and today:

1. A plant/tree with thorn(s)

2. A wordless directional sign

3. Something netted or webbed

4. Something berry berry delicious - I'm not sure how delicious these berries are to humans, but I suspect birds probably would enjoy them.

5. A bridge

6. A school

7. Something that dangles - I just loved the Edison style light bulbs that dangled above the path at one of the Metro parks.

8. Some shadows

9. A crack or pothole in the road or sidewalk

10. A white flower(s)

11. Extraordinary water - a water feature at Franklin Park Conservatory

12. Summer tools - I could think of nothing more summery than a grill and grilling tools.

13. A Sold or For Sale sign (not necessarily a house)

14. Something that rolls - This wagon may not actually roll, but it's meant to look as if it could.

This post will be linked in the final Scavenger Hunt link-up post for the season at Patio Postcards―on Monday, October 2nd, if I'm not mistaken. I may even come back and add a couple of the photos that I'm still missing!

I am sharing my photos every other Tuesday, along with my prompts for the next two weeks. You can use all or some of the prompts for your own photo posts, or none of the prompts and just link up a post featuring your photos. Simple rules: Your posts must be family-friendly; the photos must be your own; and the post must be mostly photos. If you do share I'd appreciate a mention and link to A Fresh Cup of Coffee on your post.

October Prompts - Everyday Images #19

~~~~~

same spot (monthly)

leaf

watch

messy

two

evening and/or morning

~~~~~

This post will be linked at Pictorial Tuesday, hosted by Peabea Scribbles, at Wednesday Words and Pics hosted by Denyse's Words & Pics, and at the Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt link-up at Patio Postcards.

Pictorial Tuesday

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Sunday, September 24, 2023

Scripture and a Snapshot - Shout For Joy

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Sing to the LORD a new song,

for he has done marvelous things;

his right hand and his holy arm

have worked salvation for him.

The LORD has made his salvation known

and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

He has remembered his love

and his faithfulness to Israel;

all the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation of our God.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth,

burst into jubilant song with music;

make music to the LORD with the harp,

with the harp and the sound of singing,

with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn―

shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

Let the sea resound, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands,

let the mountains sing together for joy;

let them sing before the LORD,

for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness

and the people with equity.

~Psalm 98~

May you be sealed in the Book of Life!

Thank you for joining Scripture & A Snapshot. Leave a link to your own post sharing a Scripture and a Snapshot. Take time to visit some of the other links and bless each other with comments.

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Friday, September 22, 2023

Five Minute Friday - Opinion

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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Friday and this is today's free-writing post.

popular opinion

opinion essay

in my humble opinion

********************

It just happens that in the high school writing class I teach, we start out with writing opinion essays, and that's the assignment the students are working on this week. We talked about being able to explain our opinion on a topic while being respectful of other viewpoints, and boy, is that respect lacking in the world today!

There are a few commonly used phrases or social media acronyms that we often joke about as being signals that the speaker or writer is about to do the exact opposite. Like if something "goes without saying" then why did you feel the need to say it? "IMHO" or "in my humble opinion" is one of those. Too often when we add IMHO to something we're posting, we're really signalling that we think our position is the only valid one and trying to soften the delivery. Oops. Not cool. If we have to declare our opinion as a humble one, chances are we're not actually humble about it at all.

Most of us have at least a few things that we have strong opinions on, and while some of them are personal preference things like foods we like and dislike, usually our strongest opinions are based in deeply held personal convictions about issues that have moral and ethical implications for us. I believe strong opinions are fine and often good! I certainly have some very strong opinions myself! But we all need to be careful to respect other viewpoints, even those that we are convinced are wrong. We all need to be careful that our opinions on right and wrong, good and evil, are based on God's Word. And even that our opinions on how to live godly lives are not in contradiction to God's Word.

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,

but only in expressing his opinion.

~Proverbs 18:2~

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

~II Corinthians 10:5~

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This post is linked at Five Minute Friday for the word prompt "Opinion".

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Thursday, September 21, 2023

WQ - Native Languages

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I'm participating in the Wednesday Quotes link-up hosted by Marsha at Always Write. This week we've been challenged to consider the prompts "native" or "indiginous". At first I thought of my upcoming trip to my "native land" but as I began searching for quotes I was drawn instead to those that discussed "native language", which can refer to whether we first learn to speak English or Spanish or Mandarin or whatever, or can refer to more non-verbal communication as well.

I believe the United States should allow all foreigners in this country, provided they can speak our native language . . . Apache. ~Steve Martin

That one made me laugh!

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations. ~Samuel Johnson

I don't know how many languages have been truly lost, and how many have sort of morphed or been absorbed into other languages. Rather the way English developed from older versions of the language, which borrowed from other languages. One of the most interesting books I've ever read on the subject is King Alfred's English by Laurie J. White. I got it a long time ago for my homeschool and it is one of the books I've kept and read again, and now that I've been reminded of it, I'll get it out and peruse it some more!

I do wonder about lost language though, because when I first learned to talk, I spoke Low German (aka Plautdietsch), so I guess you could say that is my native language. That was what my parents and extended family spoke at home. I was still very young when I also learned English, so I had no trouble with English when I started first grade. In fact, I already knew how to read so my English skills were arguably better than those of my classmates! Since I spoke English at school, at church, and with all my friends, I eventually lost the knack of speaking Plautdietsch although I understand almost all of it. And oddly, after about fifty years of not really speaking Plautdietsch, I can still understand it very well, still "think" in Plautdietsch on occasion, and my "default" words for many things are Plautdietsch words and I even have trouble remembering what the English words are for some of those things. Isn't that wild? So yes, language and especially a mother tongue, is quite fascinating to me in terms of how the mind works.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. ~Nelson Mandela

We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language. ~Benjamin Lee Whorf

This universe can very well be expressed in words and syllables which are not those of one's mother tongue. ~Tahar Ben Jelloun

The heavens declare the glory of God,

the dome of the sky speaks the work of his hands.

Every day it utters speech,

every night it reveals knowledge.

Without speech, without a word,

without their voices being heard,

their line goes out through all the earth

and their words to the end of the world.

~Psalm 19:2-5 (CJB)~

I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor. ~Max von Sydow

I don't know about acting, but it does seem as if the mother tongue is the one that people default to in their thoughts. I've been working on learning German (not Plautdietsch, but proper Deutsch) using the Duolingo app, and the speed at which the brain can translate and even begin to think in a different language is quite remarkable. That said, the sentences in Duolingo have sometimes been puzzling and downright hilarious! I try to screenshot the ones that really make me laugh, even as I wonder when I might need to use any of these phrases in conversation . . .

Okay, well, that last one describes pet cats in general, doesn't it?

One last quote about spoken language. This one is a classic from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion:

"Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton the The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon." ~Professor Henry Higgins, to Eliza Doolittle

Pygmalion was adapted into the musical My Fair Lady (which I love!) and that makes me think of another form of native language―music and many art forms communicate across language barriers, and some might argue that music itself may be a native language all people can share.

Rhythm is our universal mother tongue. It's the language of the soul. ~Gabrielle Roth

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~Aldous Huxley

I studied piano from the age of three. My grandmother taught piano. I stayed at her house during the day while my parents worked. I obviously wanted to learn to play. And so she asked if she could teach me, and my mother said don't you think she's too young. My grandmother apparently said no. So I could read music before I could read, and I really don't remember learning to read music. So for me it's like a native language. When I look at a sheet of music, it just makes sense. ~Condoleeza Rice

I didn't know that about the former Secretary of State, did you? Pretty interesting. I also started learning piano and to read music starting at about three years old, so I have a sense of what she means about not remembering the process of learning to read music. And that music is a language that is easy for me to read and understand. (Well, not a full orchestral score, but most other written music!)

And the way the brain can translate the languge of written music into something we can sing or play, especially in a group, is really quite remarkable too!

Music is one candidate for a universal language that can be native to all of us, but the one language that we should all learn so well that it becomes native and natural to us is love. Love, kindness, compassion―this is what all humans long for in some way, and I believe that longing has been placed in us by our Creator, and it's really a homing signal designed to call us to him. He reaches out to us in the languages we understand, and because he gave us language in the first place, he hears our prayers and praises in whatever language we speak.

. . . a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them [the followers of Jesus] speaking in his own language. They were astounded and amazed, saying, "Look, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language?"

~Acts 2:6-8~

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

~Revelation 7:9-10~

I may not be able to learn a lot of other languages, but I do hope I'm learning better every day how to make love my native language.

Wednesday Quotes is hosted by Marsha at Always Write. This post will be linked at #WQ #38: Native or Indigenous

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