Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 299 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Legacy vs. Inheritance

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 299 of our trek, and yesterday we remained at camp around the campfire and explored the importance of investing time to relax and recharge as part of our life. I do struggle with this on a personal level but am committed to making a little R&R part of my regular schedule.

Today we will head back out and compare the trails of inheritance versus legacy. While there may be some cross over, they are distinctively different. Since we started our trek on day 0, today is our 300th day on the trails of life. Thank you so much for coming along with me each day as we explore and consume small “nuggets of wisdom.” These bits of wisdom help us to live a rich and satisfying life while creating a living legacy.  If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen and read the daily journal. You can also subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and Google Play, so each day’s trek will be downloaded to you automatically.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We have had some real beautiful spring days this week, the daffodils are in full bloom, and watching our pair of hawks outside our office window as been an awesome sight.  I have also included a couple of pictures from the refinished library in today’s journal.  We will have to let the polyurethane on the floor dry solid before moving the furniture back in this weekend.

It is now time to break camp and head out to explore a couple of trails that are similar but can be drastically different. Since one of the objectives on our Wisdom-Trek is to create a living legacy each day, we want to make sure that we have a clear understanding of the difference between:

Legacy vs. Inheritance

So often we tend to equate legacy to inheritance, but in fact, they are very different things. Inheritance is about money and possessions but legacy is about the person. Let’s think about it in these two descriptions.

Inheritance is something you leave. Legacy is something you place in them.  An inheritance is something given to a person. A legacy is something done in a person. When you leave something behind as an inheritance, the recipients are temporarily happy and satisfied. But when you leave them a legacy they are permanently transformed.  If you have been on our Wisdom-Trek over the past 300 days, you know that one of our primary focuses is not just to leave a legacy when you die, but to impact everyone each day through a living legacy that will change eternity.

The truth of the matter is that we need to be much more concerned about our legacy each day than the inheritance we will leave some day. Sure, we need to make sure our wills and other financial areas are in place and protected for the next generation. The Bible mentions inheritance nearly 60 times, so it does have an importance in our lives, such as is mentioned in Proverbs 13:22, "Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren, but the sinner’s wealth passes to the godly."

Even with its importance, legacy goes far beyond the time the money or stuff runs out. Legacy is eternal. Inheritance is gifts received. Legacy is values imparted into someone else. Inheritance is a temporary reward. Legacy is an eternal reward. One day we will all die, and we can’t take anything with us. That is why it is important that we live with our eternal impact in mind. That impact is the one thing that will last forever.

We need to first be sure our eternity is secure and that we have dealt with the ...