YOUR

LEGACY
The Greatest Gift
DR. JAMES
DOBSON
New York Boston Nashville
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CHAPTER ONE
The First Generation
The year was 1862 and the Civil War was tearing our young
nation apart. Abraham Lincoln was the newly elected presi-
dent, and his Army of the Potomac was losing one battle after
another to General Robert E. Lees Confederate Army.
1
It was
a troubled time for a country that had begun with such promise.
On November 15 of that year, a baby boy was born to the
McCluskey family in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and they named
him George Washington in honor of the Father of our Country.
Mr. and Mrs. McCluskey were devout Christians and their son
was raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
George grew up and married Alice Turnell on November 14,
1886. They lived happily together for forty- nine years. He died
at seventy- two years of age. Alice lived to be ninety- eight. They
were to become my great- grandparents. He was a farmer on the
plains of Texas for many years until an itinerant minister came to
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2 YOUR LEGACY
their town. George went to hear him preach and had a dramatic
encounter with Jesus Christ. In days to come, he felt a defnite
call to the ministry and spent the rest of his life working as an
evangelist and a pastor for numerous churches. Winning people
to Christ was his greatest passion. He was about six feet fve
inches tall, about the same height as Abraham Lincoln.
G. W. McCluskey died on November 14, 1935. His grand-
daughter became my mother, and she was two months pregnant
with me when her grandpa died. I regret that I never had an
opportunity to meet this good man. As you will soon under-
stand, I owe him so much!
Alice, who I knew as Nanny, helped to raise me. One of my
earliest memories was lying in a bassinet and looking up at the
woman who smiled down upon me. She wore a knitted cap that
had fuzzy balls dangling from yarn. Though it might be diffcult
to believe, I have vague memories of reaching up from my tiny
crib and grasping the balls. I couldnt have been more than ffteen
months old. That introduction to Nanny was one of my earliest
glimmers of self- awareness, and from it came the beginnings of
my love for my great- grandmother. An even earlier memory was
of being held in someones arms, perhaps it was Nanny, who was
feeding me something that smelled like the baby food known
then as Pabulum. I still recall how it tasted. (Not very good.)
In years that followed, Nanny talked often to me about her
life with George. She never called him by his frst name, of
course. He was always referred to as my husband, or your
great- grandfather. Nanny told me fascinating stories about
their life in a cabin on the frontier and how panthers (moun-
tain lions) would prowl around at night trying to kill their
squealing pigs. My eyes must have been as big as saucers as the
imagery of those big cats became real.
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THE FIRST GENERATION 3
Nanny also told me about the prayer life of her husband. For the
last several decades of his life, this patriarch of the family prayed
specifcally for the spiritual welfare of his children and for those yet
to come. He devoted the hour from 11 a.m. to 12 noon every day
for this purpose. Toward the end of his life, he said the Lord had
made a very unusual promise to him. Reverend McCluskey had
been assured that every member of four generations of his fam-
ily would be Christians. Well see how that prophecy manifested
itself through the next eighty years and continues to this day.
What an incredible heritage has been handed down to our fam-
ily. It is remarkable to think that a man in his seventies, whom I
would not know until we get to heaven, was on his knees talking
to God about his progeny. Now my great- grandfathers prayers
reach across four generations of time and infuence our lives today.
In 2012, my son and daughter, Ryan and Danae, went with me
to fnd the McCluskey gravesite for the frst time. We located it in
Placid, Texas, an hours drive from Austin. There are only thirty-
two people living in Placid today, most of them elderly. There
are no stores or businesses remaining in that place. An old brick
schoolhouse still stands where children once learned, laughed,
and played. It is decrepit and boarded up now. A small ramshackle
general store has survived but is locked up tight. This is where
people once bought groceries and played dominoes in the dis-
tant past. A rusted Conoco gasoline pump leans out front. We
worked our way around to the other side of what used to be a town
and found an abandoned cemetery. Eighteen members of the
McCluskey family are buried there. Among them are the graves
of my great- grandfather, George, and his wife, Alice (Nanny). His
tombstone is inscribed with the words, George W. McCluskey.
He died as he lived a Christian. What an understatement!
We knelt there at the gravesite and each of us prayed because
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4 YOUR LEGACY
it seemed like holy ground. Each of us thanked the Lord for
the infuence of these godly ancestors and for the prayers of my
great- grandfather. As Danae was praying, a beautiful rainbow
appeared above us. Tears fowed down her cheeks as she spoke
from her heart. A caretaker told us it is rare to see such a breath-
taking scene in that dry hill country. Ryan was the last to pray,
and he thanked the Lord for the four generations of our family
who have lived for Jesus Christ, each in their time. Ryan said
that George McCluskey would have wanted to know that he
and Danae are also serving Christ, and as such, are members of
the ffth generation. Ryan and his wife, Laura, are teaching their
two children to love Jesus, too. They will soon take their places
as representatives of the sixth. How powerful are the prayers of
a man whose petitions have reached his children, grandchildren,
great- grandchildren, great- great- grandchildren, and great- great-
great- grandchildren. We are all benefciaries of his devotion.
Hebrews 12:1 tells us we are surrounded by a great cloud
of witnesses. Ive always wondered who is in that cloud. Are
they the patriarchs of the Bible or the other saints who have
gone before, or perhaps angels who are looking down on us?
I dont know. Ill leave it to the theologians to interpret for us.
But Id like to think the McCluskeys are watching from above.
Regardless, theres one thing I know. We will see them again.
Have you thought about the legacy you want to leave to your
children and generations to come? That is a question every
Christian parent should consider. The implications of it are
breathtaking. If the objective of living is to pass on a heritage of
faith to those you love and to be with them throughout eternity,
I suggest that you be intentional about preparing for it now.
That is what I want to share with you in the pages to follow.
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