A lot of us may seek to justify the choices we make by asking something along the lines of, “What will it matter in a hundred years time?” Well, actually, maybe more than we might think. The decisions we make today will have an effect on future generations for all sorts of reasons. For one, if we have children or at least an influence on those of younger generations, the way we treat them and teach them and provide for them will have an effect on how they go out and live their lives. And then there's also the way our actions can have a trickle down effect on societal, economic, and environmental realities that future generations will have to grapple with. But I think one area where we don't always consider having such an impact is on the historical record we leave for those who come after us. Obviously there are those among us who are the big movers and shakers of the world and are acutely and perhaps even aspirationally aware of what kind of mark they are going to make on history, but for those of us who labor in relative obscurity, we might assume that the world will little note nor long remember what challenges we faced and what we decided to do about it. In fact, it may very well be that many of us get to the end of our lives having made little progress in understanding why we went through the adversities and afflictions that we faced and having little to no hope that anything good will ever come of it. But maybe it is not for us to understand during our lifetimes. Maybe, instead, we are to exercise faith and do the best we can with seemingly impossible situations and leave for future generations a record that they can study and draw strength and inspiration from as they face their own challenges. Maybe from their vantage point they will be able to see far more clearly than we ever could just exactly where we went wrong, and perhaps, against our darkest doubts and fears, where we went right and triumphed. How often have we read the scriptures and studied the lives of those who have gone before and lamented at how foolish and short-sighted they were, and only if they had held on a little longer or trusted the Lord a little more, how different would their lives have been? We owe it to ourselves to try every day to be the best version of ourselves no matter what life throws at us, but we owe it just as strongly to future generations who might end up facing tests of their faith and courage that are far worse than anything we had to deal with and who can definitely use all of the help that they can get from studying our lives and drawing strength from our triumphs and wisdom from our failures. I hope that when we are making a decision, we truly believe that it will matter very much in a hundred years time what we do, so that we can leave a history and a legacy of great worth for those who come after us.
