Dipping the Quill Deeper: Another Story of Legacy

by Eva Marie Everson @EversonAuthor

I find the concept of legacy to be a fascinating one. I don’t think most of us intentionally set out to leave a legacy. I believe that, for the most part, the majority of us are just living our lives. We want to do well in our work, we want to do well by our families. But the days that follow the days slip up on us, often without a lot of thought when we are in the process of them. How often have I, now that I’m nearing my 8th decade, said, “Where did the years go?”

Even on a daily basis, I think, “Didn’t I just do this a minute ago?” when in actually, I did it a day ago.

This is part of the routine. Waking. Getting out of bed. Making coffee or tea. Making the bed. Working. Making more coffee or tea. Eating lunch. Eating dinner. Unmaking the bed. Going to sleep. Waking. Getting out of bed . . . 

When the Gospel writers (or any of the writers of the Holy Writ) sat down with ink and parchment to pen their letters and stories, do you think that at any point they thought, “This is legacy in the making”?

I don’t. I think they were just penning stories for history’s sake and writing letters for the betterment of the church. 

What about writers such as Melville, Shakespeare, Austin, the Bronte sisters, du Maurier, Dickens, Fitzgerald, Eliot, etc.? When they wrote their masterpieces, do you think that, at any time, they sat back and said, “This will be part of my legacy! I will be a legend because I wrote this!”?

I do not.

I think they just wrote whatever was in their heart and their mind. 

Recently, I went to Cottonwood, Arizona for a Word Weavers all-day writing retreat. As per usual, I stayed at a member’s home. In this case, the home of a husband-and-wife writing duo. I couldn’t help but notice a large oil painting that hung behind the dining room table. This painting featured an older woman, sitting in a rocker beside an old farm table where a kerosene lamp gave off enough light for her to read the open Bible in her lap. 

“That was my grandmother,” the wife told me. 

I had flown in on Thursday and I didn’t leave until Monday. During those several days, I heard a lot about the grandmother. I also learned a lot about being raised on a sheep ranch in Montana. I learned that the grandmother moved to town and then, when her granddaughter (the wife) came to be a teenager, she moved in with her so that going to school was easier. If I remember correctly, from the ranch to the school was a thirty-mile trip and this had to be done twice a day. 

“So my grandmother and I got very close in those years,” she told me. 

For the longest time I stared at that painting. I also took a photo of it. And when I think about the beauty of the subject matter for longer than five seconds, I tear up.

I’ll bet this woman never wrote a book or even an article. I bet she never got up one morning and thought, “I wonder if anything I’ll ever do today or any day will leave a legacy.” 

But she did, in fact, leave a remarkable legacy because 1) her granddaughter (and subsequently her great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren) will have her story and its influence; and 2) a woman from Florida spent several days studying the painting that bears witness to her love for God . . . and was moved. 

And changed.

I have a feeling that, no matter how many books I write or speeches I give, none of that will matter if the everyday living of my life doesn’t point upward . . . if it doesn’t leave my children, my grandchildren, and so on with the desire to know Him more. 

The challenge then is to put more effort into the one as I have done the other. And so, I shall. And so, shall I.

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Dipping the Quill Deeper: Another Story of Legacy from @EversonAuthor on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Eva Marie Everson is the CEO of Word Weavers International, the director of Florida Christian Writers Conference, and the contest director for Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. She is the multiple award-winning author of more than 45 books and countless articles and blogposts. She is also an award-winning speaker and a Bible teacher, a recipient of the Yvonne Lehman Award (2022), the AWSA Lifetime Achievement Award (2022), and the ECPA Gold Medallion (2023). 

Eva Marie is often seen at writers conferences across the States. She served as a mentor for the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild and taught as a guest professor at Taylor University in 2011. She and her husband make their home in Central Florida where they enjoy their grandchildren. They are owned by a cat named Vanessa.

Eva Marie's latest book, THE THIRD PATH JOURNAL, is a companion to her book, the AWSA Golden Scroll Book of the Year, THE THIRD PATH. The Third Path looks at 26 of the questions God asked in the Bible, then makes them personal to the reader. The premise of the book is currently her most asked for continuing workshop at writers conferences.