Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 604 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Passion – The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 604 of our trek and Motivation Monday. We are hiking a series of trails called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack.

Each Monday for a total of 20 weeks, we will explore a different tool that is needed to motivate and equip parents and grandparents to train their children and grandchildren to be successful on their trek of life. If you don’t have children or grandchildren of your own, use these tools to train others that you do influence. Today the 19^th tool from Gramps’ Backpack is Passion.

 We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. This past weekend we were able to get outside with the chainsaw and continue our work on cutting up the trees that we had cut down several months ago. It will take another weekend or two to finish cutting it up, and we will wait until fall to split it. We certainly have a large pile of firewood that should last us for several winters.

We were also able to attend the first dance recital for our granddaughter Aurora and invest time with several family members this past week which is always a blessing.

As we continue to adjust to our schedule around Hazel’s leukemia treatments and the impact that this has on our family, which is in many ways positive, it gives us time for a pause to focus on what our true passions are in life.

So the tool we will explore today is…

Passion

Are you passionate about the activities of your life, your loved ones, your work, and your Savior? As a Christ follower, who has been given the gift of eternal life through the sacrifice of Christ, we should be passionate about our service for Him through our lives. This service will incorporate all areas of our lives as we dedicate ourselves to impacting our world. We need to be passionate about our lives and teach this passion to our children, grandchildren, and others that we mentor.

The popular movie “The Passion of Christ” which was released a few years ago showed very vividly the love and passion that Christ has for us. Why did Christ endure the humiliation and torture of the cross? He did it for you. His love is as near as your next breath, as personal as your next thought, more essential than your next heartbeat. What should your response be to this passion that Christ has for you? You must accept His love, praise His name, and live a life that is worthy of His calling. You must conduct yourself in a manner that demonstrates to your children, grandchildren, and others that you impact that your acquaintance with the Master is not a passing fancy but that it is instead the cornerstone and the very bedrock of your life.

As a thoughtful Christ follower, you have every reason to be enthusiastic about all of life. I do realize that the realities of life do impact us. Sometimes the struggles of everyday living may leave you feeling exhausted and discouraged, especially if something has impacted you in a dramatic way. If your passion for life is slowly fading away, it is time to slow down, to rest, to recount your blessings, to have an attitude of gratitude, to worship, and to pray.

When you allow Christ to reign over your heart, when you worship Him with words, thoughts, prayers, and deeds, your life can become rich and satisfying. This may be a gradual process as we follow the exhortation found in 2 Peter 1:3-9,

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

Since God has given us everything that we need to live a passionate Godly life, we need to supplement our lives with the attributes listed in the passage above. At the same time, we need to teach our children, grandchildren, and others that we mentor how to live passionate godly lives through these same attributes. Put into practice what the Apostle Paul instructed us in Romans 12:11, “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.”

With these thoughts in mind, we will conclude our trek for today and close Gramps’ backpack. Before I do, I will pass the tool of Passion on to you. Once you have this tool in your backpack, it is up to you to live life with passion putting on the character traits mentioned today. It is up to you to demonstrate and teach this to your children, grandchildren, and others that you mentor. Living a life of passion needs to become a part of the very fabric of your life, it is then that you will live the rich and satisfying life that is available to each of us.

Next Monday we will investigate the 20^th tool in Gramps’ backpack, which is Wisdom. On tomorrow’s trek, we will explore another wisdom quote. This 3-minute wisdom supplement will assist you in becoming healthy, wealthy, and wise each day. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along tomorrow for another day of Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the daily journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe on iTunes and Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!