Legacies in the Making

She’s been called a “no-nonsense Memphis supermom,” “a spitfire,” and probably a lot of other things less charitable by those who don’t understand her. The young man she took in because she saw him shivering in the rain…well, he just calls her “Mom.”

I’m talking, of course, about Leigh Anne Tuohy, one of the main characters of the recent box-office sensation, The Blind Side. Sandra Bullock apparently played her brilliantly, but Leigh Anne isn’t an Academy Award-winning actress. Her character wasn’t crafted by a best-selling author or a Hollywood screenwriter. In a word, she’s real. And that’s what makes her genuinely inspiring.

I want to be a Leigh Anne Tuohy. I want to leave a legacy worth emulating.

I don’t want to be just another of the “ladies who lunch” set. I don’t want to be another well-meaning Christian woman who does good things because she knows she should. What I want is to make an earth-shattering, reality-altering difference in this world. A real difference.

Spare me, God, from being so self-absorbed that I don’t even notice the private hells of others. Or worse, save me from noticing, but turning away because it seems too hard, too messy, too depressing, or too complicated to help. Yes God, help me to see and hear, but mostly help me to act. That’s what I find magnetically attractive about Leigh Anne – her action. I want to be a woman of action.

A few years ago, I was shaken from my middle class American mom life by a mission trip my family took to Zambia, Africa. We worked with a beautiful group of children whose lives were ravaged by AIDS, poverty that defies description, rampant evil and very real starvation. We’re partnering with a lovely group named Family Legacy who is intervening miraculously on their behalf. For information on the many ways to partner with them, please go to their website, www.legacymissions.org. To see and sponsor one of the children I actually worked with, go to their Father’s Heart page, click Search by Ambassador, then type in my name, Vickey Banks. If my “babies” are all covered, just type in my last name and click on my husband or children’s names.

I’d love to hear of the ways you’ve found to make a difference in this world. Not because we need (or should) toot our horns, but to open each other’s eyes and ears to how we can authentically live out God’s call to be doers and not merely hearers who delude ourselves. (James 1:22). So share with me, please. Let’s talk, and then…let’s do!

Really Relating

What are the ways you’ve found to invest and make a difference in the lives of others? How has trying to change them changed you?