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Fannie Lou Hamer was the 20th child of a Mississippi sharecropper. During the Civil Rights Movement, she often spoke out against brutality, indignities, and racism. She also decided to record some favorite songs she learned from her mother, like “Precious Lord,” “A City Called Heaven,” “Jesus is My Only Friend,” and “Walk with Me, Lord.” Hamer said she recorded these songs to pass on to the next generation things she learned from her mother. We should all be concerned about our legacy—what we pass on to the next generation. It was certainly of concern to Moses. We find in Deuteronomy chapter 11 that as he spoke to his people just before he died, he urged them to follow the Lord’s commands unreservedly. With their offspring in mind he said, “Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors.” Leaving a legacy to children is far more than leaving a will. It’s leaving them a well-lived life.
