After reading Steve Harvey’s book titled “Jump”, there was one story that I simply could not get rid of in my head. It inspired me and I hope it will inspire you too:
"A young man went to the hospital to visit his grandmother. She was very ill. When he arrived at the hospital, he could clearly see that she wasn’t going to make it. He started to cry. His grandmother said, “Baby, I’m getting ready to leave this world.” He responded, “Grandma, ain’t nothing wrong with you. You’re going to be all right.”
“No baby, I’m not going to be leaving this hospital. It’s time for me to go,” she told him. He cried and held on to his grandmother a little while longer. Before he left, she asked, “Do you know your great-grandfather’s name?” He said, “No.”
“You know why?” she asked. He shook his head. She said, “Because he didn’t leave you nothing. Before you leave this earth, I want you to live your life so that your children’s grandchildren will know your name.”
After reading this story I started to understand that our “lives are not our own.” In other words, growing up I never thought about how my choices could literally affect the generations that came after me. In fact, it’s proven by many scientific studies that the way we think and live our lives directly affect the genes we pass down to generation to generation. I quickly had a paradigm shift in my thinking about how I lived my own life. If we started living our lives as if our grandchildren were looking over our shoulder, what would you want them to see? What would you want them not to see? How would you live your life? Would some of your decisions be any different? What type of passions would you want them to be exposed to? Would you want them to dream? How would you want them to treat people?
Anything that we do now will be a direct reflection of the lessons that we will leave our future kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. It’s sometimes scary to think about but necessary for the well-being of ourselves and generations to come.
- Chazz Scott, The Nucleus