Participants' Daily Questions

Introduction to “The Legacy Tree” by Cecil Taylor

The concepts behind the Legacy Tree started nearly two decades before publication. I originally focused on the transition from success to significance. I read books that articulated this transition and gave practical concepts for how to make this transition.

At first, I thought I had nothing new to add. But as I pondered and prayed, I felt the Holy Spirit guide me toward the metaphor of the tree. If I recall, one of my inspirations was watching my young sons and thinking of what I wanted them to be when they grew up. I wasn’t thinking of vocations or activities; I thought of them as trees, standing tall and true, visible, providing for others.

I wrote a short book, a Sunday School lesson series, and a workbook. But I felt something was missing. Not only was it mediocre (frankly), but I also felt that it somehow lacked heart. So I put it aside.

Over the years, I would return, look at it and put it away again. As time went on, I realized how my life had changed, and how I had changed. I realized that I couldn’t originally write the book because I hadn’t truly lived it – maybe parts of it, but I hadn’t been intentional about living it. So I had changed to become more of a legacy tree.

As I made this pass at what became “The Legacy Tree,” I became more intentional and put the concepts into practice. My life got better. My service got better. My relationship to God and others got better. Not dramatically, but incrementally. It was a firmer foundation. The concepts were something I started to turn to when I was discouraged, confused or needing a new thought.

My prayer for you is that this video series and workbook will plant seeds in you to become The Legacy Tree, and that you will repeatedly turn to this foundation as you proceed through life.

About the Video Series and the Participants’ Daily Questions

The video series is designed to be viewed and studied in Sunday School classes and small groups. The timeframe is a 12-week period, although the group can easily break these into three modules of four lessons each and spread them over a longer period of time. During each week, you’ll watch and discuss one or two videos. The intended length is 45-55 minutes for that week’s session.

While I hope the videos are meaningful, thought-provoking and entertaining, I believe that the discussions and these daily questions are more important.

Discussions after watching the video will help participants understand the concepts and start to think about how to put them into practice.

Although it’s unfortunately true that many participants will not follow through with the daily questions, I believe this is where the most progress can be made. Most people need more processing in order to orient their lives to becoming the Legacy Tree. These questions are tools to methodically understand, incorporate and live the principles of “The Legacy Tree.” 

How to Use the Participants’ Daily Questions

Using this page daily between lessons allows you to spend more time in that re-orientation. But don’t get discouraged if you miss a week of class or miss a day during the week. Because each lesson is summarized, you can gain a lot and catch up by using the daily questions.

The questions are designed to be answered after watching that week’s video. Again, the lesson summary will help if you miss the video.

To help you remember to use the page:

• Bookmark the page on each of your devices.
• Set an alarm or reminder to call your attention to the day’s question.

You can ponder your answers during your prayer or meditation time, during your morning routine, while driving or commuting, over a meal, or any other time that is convenient. You can answer them alone or compare notes with a partner.

ALL of the 12 weeks of questions are on this page.

1. Introduction / What the Tree Is / Roots 

Key points of the video:

• Introduction
  • Success is not necessarily a worthless pursuit. But if it’s not paired with significance, we will discover that our lives are not as worthwhile as they might have been.
  • Trees act with an ingrained intelligence to share nutrients, to communicate and to support each other.
  • A group of trees, called Legacy Trees, provide for younger trees and hold a section of forest together.
  • We want to become the Legacy Tree in the human forest, in our relationships with others, in order to produce significance for God’s kingdom.
  • Jesus is our role model for significance.
  • The three main categories of the Legacy Tree model:
    • What the Tree Is – how you define yourself
    • What the Tree Provides – how you give yourself
    • What the Tree Needs – how you refine yourself
• Roots
  • Example of Pando, one of the world’s oldest organisms, unified by its roots.
  • Example of fig tree root bridges, showing the impact of tending to roots.
  • Roots are our anchors, our foundation. They are what sustain us in good times and bad.
  • Family, groups, meditation, routine, and self-confidence are examples of such anchors.
  • Jesus’ anchor was his obedience to God.
  • Jesus warned us that we need a strong foundation, a strong “root system” based on obedience to God. 
  • We have to work to do this. We can’t start building a foundation when we are in desperate situations.
  • The Big Thought of this lesson is: Cultivate your roots and strongly lean on them. Remember that the central root is an obedient relationship with God.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 1

1. Cecil starts “The Legacy Tree” series with these words: 

We all want to make our mark on the world. We all want to be remembered in some way. We want to know that our life has meant something.

How are you making your mark on the world? How would you like to be remembered?

2. People love trees! What do you love about trees? Where are the trees you love?

3. After completing the video series, Cecil commented, “I look at a forest differently now that I know trees are connected to each other. I’m always trying to figure out which ones are the legacy trees!” Sometimes, adjacent trees will intertwine their roots and feed each other. When one dies, the other will often die, too!

How do you feel about trees knowing that they act with some kind of ingrained intelligence?

4. (From the Roots lesson) Pando is amazing! This Quaking Aspen of Utah is also threatened by mule deer and ranch cattle that eat its young shoots, and is generally threatened by human encroachment.

Pando is endangered. The human forest is endangered, too. In your opinion, how is the human forest endangered?

5. In the video, Cecil gives examples of roots, such as family, groups, meditation, routines, music, self-confidence, your history of getting through difficult times, important places and things that comfort and support you. And most importantly, obedience to God.

What are your roots? What is your anchor – in good times and bad? Spend some time thinking about your foundation. Deeply consider what you rely on. Reflect on your past and present. Decide what you want your anchor(s) to be going forward.

6. In the video, Cecil said, “God has been showing me that there are new levels of commitment, obedience and understanding that I can reach. And you can, too.” How can you strengthen your root of God through increasing your commitment, obedience and understanding?

 

2. Trunk  

Key points of the video:

• Your Trunk is what you represent, what you stand for. It consists of your fundamental beliefs called core values.
• You want core values that direct you toward action.
• Jesus displayed and articulated his core values throughout the Gospels, but especially in the Sermon on the Mount.
• Cecil shared examples of core values from his family and from his life to trigger your thinking about core values.
• And as much as we acknowledge that tree trunks are strong and purposeful, they are also flexible. There are times when we must be flexible with our core values as well.

• The Big Thought for this lesson is: Identify your core values by examining your belief system, your past actions and the wise instruction you have received.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 2

1. Cecil says that one of his inspirations for “The Legacy Tree” was looking at his children when they were young, and thinking how he wanted them to stand tall and true, visible to others, standing for something.

What would others say that you stand for?

2. In the Trunk lesson, Cecil gives the example of the redwood tree and how its trunk reminds us of durability. We often see examples in nature that remind us of some quality or core value.

What qualities or core values do you think of when you see:

• Ants
• Roses
• Butterflies
• Owls
• Wolves
• Oaks

3. Think of one or more people possessing strong, visible Core Values. List these people and their Core Value(s). These could be people you personally know or people you have learned about (e.g., Abraham Lincoln). 

What Core Values does Jesus have?

4. In the Trunk video, Cecil talks about how trees must twist and bend. He showed the Torrey Pines that grow in a slanted fashion due to strong ocean winds. Note that engineers have considered this aspect of trees when designing resilient buildings in earthquake zones.

Why is it important for humans to also have the ability to twist and bend?

5. Identify your own Core Values. (IMPORTANT: Save your Core Values list, as you will need it in a later lesson). To help trigger your thinking, here is a list of keywords that might identify Core Values. (Notice that they are not all positive!)

Achievement	Activity / Busyness	Adventure	Anger	Authenticity
Authority	Autonomy	Balance	Beauty	Belonging
Challenge	Citizenship	Cleanliness	Community	Compassion
Competency	Contribution	Control	Creativity	Criticism
Curiosity	Cynicism	Determination	Discernment	Discouragement
Effort	Expert Skill or Knowledge	Fairness	Faith / Hope	Fame
Fear / Anxiety	Financial Independence	Friendships / Relationships	Frugality	Fun
Greed	Growth	Guilt / Regret	Happiness	Health / Longevity
Helpfulness	Honesty	Humor	Influence	Inner Harmony
Integrity	Investing in People	Judgment	Justice	Kindness
Knowledge	Leadership	Learning	Loneliness	Love
Loyalty	Meaningful Work	Openness / Vulnerability	Optimism	Order / Structure
Outspokenness	Peace with others	Pleasure	Popularity	Power
Pragmatism	Recognition	Religion	Reputation	Respect for Others
Responsibility	Risk-taking	Security	Self-Control	Self-Doubt
Self-Respect	Service	Significance	Spirituality	Stability
Status	Success	Suspicion	Tolerance	Trustworthiness
Visibility	Vision	Wealth	Wisdom	Worry

6. Yesterday you identified your Core Values. Which Core Value do you want to work on, to embody better, to reveal to others with your behavior? How are you going to do this?

3. Branches

Key points of the video:

• The number one factor for branch direction and growth is that the branch seeks opportunities for light.
• Branches represent our talents, gifts, interests and passions. The video focuses on how to match these to opportunities to serve God’s kingdom.
• In the Parable of the Talents, Christ drives us to take risks and seize opportunities to benefit God’s kingdom.
• God can use whatever Branches we offer, big or small, to achieve significance.
  • Cecil gives an example of his volunteer work with a church whose sanctuary had burned, and how he discovered how God can use all of our branches, even those that takes us out of our comfort zones.
• Just like a tree benefits from “stress wood” that supports its branches, the Holy Spirit provides support for our Branches when we take a risk and reach out.
• We need to understand the ways in which the Holy Spirit guides us, and respond obediently.
  • Prayer
  • Conscience
  • Other People
  • Shaping us through Events of our Lives
  • Shaping our Desires and Passions
  • Amazing stuff – “Lightning Moments”
  • Multiplication, multiplying our efforts to let us know we’re on the right track.

• The Big Thought of this lesson is: Take a risk for God’s kingdom, applying your talents and passions under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 3

1. Our Branches are our Talents, Gifts, Interests and Passions. On a sheet of paper or in your favorite note-taking app, write down your Talents, Gifts, Interests and Passions according to the following criteria:

Talents – These are our skills and abilities

Examples: Math or financial expertise, juggling skill, carpentry skills, knowledge of history, musical talent, cooking skill.

Gifts – These “soft skills” emerge from who we are.

Examples: Outgoing personality, organizational skills, patience, listening, humor.

Interests – These are things we enjoy doing.

Examples: Camping and hiking; reading; video games; watching sports; working on small models such as trains; rock climbing; gardening; travel.

Passions – These are things we are enthusiastic about, that drive us to action

Examples: Social justice; working with senior citizens; our favorite team; time with family.

NOTE: Some people find this uncomfortable because they don’t want to “toot their own horn.” But remember that all of these are God-given in some way. You are putting together this inventory to eventually help you identify opportunities in which you can provide significance.

2. Play with the analogy of Branches as follows: Reflect on your growth as a “Tree” throughout your life.

1. What were your branches as a child?
2. How did your branches change as you grew? Which ones dropped off, which were added, which strengthened and developed?

3. In the lesson, we heard about The Parable of the Talents and how Jesus encourages us to take risks for His kingdom. In fact, in the parable, the master's rage was reserved for the servant that did not take a risk. Yet we do not like taking risks, either. 

We can build up our “risk muscle” by taking smaller risks to practice for bigger ones. What is a small risk you can take today or very soon?

4. Cecil mentioned seven ways in which the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Perhaps this list made you realize that the Holy Spirit has actually been speaking to you, and you didn’t recognize the source. Have you experienced any of the seven ways?

1. Prayer
2. Conscience
3. Other People
4. Shaping us through Events of our Lives
5. Shaping our Desires and Passions
6. Amazing stuff – “Lightning Moments”
7. Multiplication, multiplying our efforts to let us know we’re on the right track.

5. Where is Christ asking you to branch out? Where do you take a risk? Where should you seek opportunities for His kingdom and for significance?

NOTE: For the purposes of this question, you are considering your present situation. But going forward, you should continuously return to this question to understand new opportunities for risking in order to serve the kingdom significantly.

6. Read the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer below:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside by thee.

Exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

1. Where is there risk in this prayer? 
2. Which risks are you willing to take? 
3. Which risks are you not willing to take?

 

4. Fruit

Key points of the video:

• In the analogy of the Legacy Tree, your Fruit represents your actions.
  • The outside of the Fruit represents the actions that people can observe.
  • The inside of the Fruit represents how your actions can be shaped from the inside by the Holy Spirit.
• To make the fruit good, first make the tree good by establishing, then representing, core values.
• Realize that to observers, your actions reveal your intentions (your core values).
• We need to assess our actions to ensure they align with our intentions and make corrections when they don’t.
• Your actions can “pollinate,” or inspire, others.
• The Holy Spirit wants to mold your character into that of Christ. In doing so, the Fruits of the Spirit will grow in you.
• Get closer to the Holy Spirit in order to allow the Fruits to grow.
• The Big Thought of this lesson is: Align your actions with your core values, and become known for what you stand for.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 4

1. For the rest of this week, pray for the Holy Spirit to hold up a mirror so you can see where your intentions and actions do not match. Take note each day of what you have learned. (There may be some days when you seem to learn nothing. There may be days when you learn quite a bit!)

2. We’ve talked about symbolism in nature in a previous Daily Question. Cecil has used Fruit to symbolize our actions. What other meanings do you associate with Fruit?

3. Think about the Fruits of the Spirit below. We tend to think of them as isolated from each other, but in reality, they are very interconnected. Looking at the list below, where do you find interconnectedness? And consider whether in growing one Fruit, you are indirectly growing another.

Love – 

Joy – 

Peace – 

Patience – 

Kindness – 

Goodness – 

Faithfulness – 

Gentleness – 

Self-Control – 

4. In the Fruit video, Cecil talks about how trees can pollinate each other, and how important it is for one tree to provide for another in this way.

Who is someone who has “pollinated” you, who has inspired you through their actions? How can you pass along that inspiration to someone else?

5. Consider the phrase, “Become known for what you stand for.” Think of one of your core values. Are you known for it? If you are, describe a way in which you’ve been able to show it. If you are not, what is something that you can do to become better known for it?

6. This ends the first module of “The Legacy Tree,” entitled “What the Tree Is.” In studying Roots, Trunk, Branches and Fruit, what concepts or phrases have stuck with you? What is something you can apply to your life? Review the Participants’ Daily Questions for lesson summaries and questions that might stimulate your thinking. 

 

5.What the Tree Provides / Shade

Key points of the video:

• What the Tree Provides
  • Quick summary of the series so far
  • Challenge: Re-think what you’re doing to provide for others. Don’t overestimate what you’re really doing.
  • Definitions of Significance 
    • Having meaning, such as “The painter’s task was to pick out the significant details”.
      • Significance focuses on the most meaningful items.
    • Having or likely to have influence or effect: important, weighty.
      • We want to influence others.
    • Probably caused by something other than mere chance, such as a statistically significant correlation.
      • We will achieve greater significance by being intentional.
  • Cecil introduced the Pyramid of Providing model.

• 
  
  • The four concepts under the What the Tree Provides section are layered from bottom to top in the Pyramid of Providing:
    • Shade - Furnishes temporary relief from the light and heat of the sun. Shade provides a place for those underneath it to rest.
    • Seeds – The manner by which the tree reproduces its characteristics. Seeds create the trees of the future.
    • Home – The tree offers a safe haven, a place to live, a place for shelter and protection.
    • Sacrifice – The tree’s resources and components are used by others. While we readily think of a tree unwillingly being sacrificed and its components distributed, there are also instances in which a tree will sacrifice itself for other trees.
  • Going up the pyramid requires more investment and achieves more significance.
  • We must be more selective as we ascend the pyramid.

• Shade
  • Shade is cool, provides relief, and restores, just like kindness. 
  • Kindness is an essential way of living life, but it is a short-term effort that has a short-term effect.
  • Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates the Three A’s of Kindness:
    • Awareness – We must be aware of others’ needs before we can be kind.
    • Acceptance – Being kind means you accept the cost and risk of kindness.
    • Action – We have to follow through.
  • Cecil compared two stories:
    • A time when he was rushing through an airport late at night to reach a rental car counter before others. He only lightly noticed someone laying across their bags. Later he learned that the person had a medical emergency.
    • A youth retreat when his son Anthony checked on a girl acting strangely, only to find out that she was stressed because she was being sexually abused by an adult male in her life. Anthony’s awareness, acceptance and action led to the man eventually being sent to prison, and the girl getting help she needed.
    • The first is an example of living in a Success way, while the second is an example of living in the way of Significance.
• The Big Thought of this lesson is: Be aware of others’ needs, accept the risk of being kind, and take action.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 5

1. In “What the Tree Is,” we learned how to define ourselves through:

• Our roots – what anchors us
• Our trunk – our core values, what we stand for
• Our fruit – our actions, what we are known for
• Our branches – our talents and interests, and how those are applied to opportunities to serve God’s kingdom

Why do you think it’s important to define yourself in order to better give yourself?

2. To sum up Cecil’s definitions of “significance,” we must be intentional about doing what is meaningful and influential. Check yourself on each point:

• How intentional are you about living a significant life and providing for others?
• How well do you prioritize the things that are meaningful?
• How do you influence others?

3. Think about a shady tree that you own or have experienced. What was it like to sit under that tree? Mapping to the Legacy Tree, how can you recreate that “shady tree” feeling for someone who might sit underneath your branches?

4. In the Shade lesson, Cecil outlined the three A’s of kindness:

• Awareness – We must be aware of others’ needs before we can be kind.
• Acceptance – Being kind means you accept the cost and risk of kindness.
• Action – We have to follow through.

Think about a time when you were kind to someone else, OR someone was kind to you. Consider how the three A’s of Awareness, Acceptance and Action fit this example.

5. Do you agree with Cecil’s statement from the video? “True kindness doesn’t consider whether this person deserves kindness.” Should a person receive kindness even if they don’t deserve it? What impact might kindness have on that person?

6. “The Good Samaritan” parable that forms the basis for our Shade discussion is one of the most cherished parables of Jesus. What other parables of Jesus do you cherish, and what meaning do they hold for you?

 

6. Seeds

Key points of the video:

• Seeds are the mechanisms by which trees reproduce their characteristics. Trees disperse seeds through wind, water and animals.
• The video focuses only on planting seeds in People, although Cecil mentions that we can plant seeds through Ideas and Vocation.
• Jesus planted seeds in his disciples by his teachings and by his example.
• Jesus illustrates two key aspects of seeds: They are ordinary, and their impact multiplies or expands, otherwise known as a ripple effect.
• In his youth ministry, Cecil discovered that seeds were more often planted in ordinary times than in the mountaintop experiences.
• A key aspect of the ordinary is presence. Simply by being present with and for people, we can make an impact in ordinary times. The repeated, persistent aspect of being present is one way in which Seeds differ from Shade.
• Mentoring is an important way to plant seeds. Cecil gives three techniques or characteristics to keep in mind when mentoring: Integrity, Goal Setting, and Caring and Challenging.
• When we plant seeds in people, there is an expansion or ripple effect. We may be blessed to learn our impact, but often, we never know of the ripple effect we have had.
• Cecil gives expansion examples of his middle school Sunday School teacher, and his great-grandmother, whose strong faith has influenced every generation after her.
• Cecil gives a combined ordinary/expansion example of how he unwittingly influenced a high school friend.
• The Big Thought of this lesson is: Increase your presence with others so you can plant seeds in them and cause a positive ripple effect through time.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 6

1. In fantasy literature and movies, trees are portrayed as wise, helpful or powerful. For example, in the movie Pocahontas, the lead character consults with Grandmother Willow. In the movie The Two Towers in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Ents are a race closely resembling trees, who are ancient shepherds of the forest and brave allies of the free peoples of Middle-earth. In these movies, the tree characters plant seeds in their own ways. What qualities do you have that allow you as the Legacy Tree to plant seeds in others?

2. Identify the people that have planted seeds in your life. Think not only of good seeds, but bad seeds, that may have been planted.

3. In question #2, you identified people that have planted seeds in you. Choose one of the examples of good seeds being planted, then consider the following:

1. Did the relationship begin as a Shade relationship involving kindness toward you? Or did it evolve another way?
2. In what ways was the seed planting ordinary? How might it have been extraordinary?
3. Did the seed multiply in you, or did it multiply in how you passed its ripple effect along to others? If so, how?

4. One of the key principles of the Legacy Tree is how to push opportunities up the Pyramid of Providing, for example, developing a Shade relationship into a Seed relationship. Consider how to do this, remembering the diagram in the video that showed the difference between Shade and Seeds is Presence with others.

The Shade relationship could be a current relationship that you would like to develop further, or it could be a past time when you successfully developed a Shade relationship into a Seed relationship.

If this is difficult to answer, consider the following example from Cecil’s life, and how it hits on some of the points presented in the video:

• Cecil was contacted by a former youth group member who was having trouble in college and wanted to talk it over during lunch.
• Because of the nature of the trouble, Cecil saw an opportunity to help in more ways than only listening over lunch (Shade/Kindness).
• Cecil was able to invest time being present over the next few weeks, helping the young man through the process of charting a new direction in his life (Seeds).
• The young man listened because Cecil had previously built trust through integrity during the young man’s teen years.
• Cecil’s mentorship approach was to listen for clues as to how the young man “ticked”. He then helped the young man with goal setting. Because Cecil invested hours in caring, he was then able to challenge the young man to understand the consequences of his prior actions and to understand the ramifications of each path he might take in achieving his goals.

• The young man eventually left his college to work for awhile, reconciled with family, then enrolled in a different college the following semester.

5. Think of great seed-planters you have known. Do they plant seeds through their involvement with People, through their spread of Ideas, or through the way they approach their Vocations? Or some combination of the three techniques?

6. Watch David Flood’s Goalcast video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBgCowsnw3Q. How would you describe this story in terms of the Seeds attribute of the Legacy Tree? What was ordinary about what happened? How did the seed expand?

 

7. Home

Key points of the video:

• Mutual symbiotic relationships are the model for the Home relationship. Tree examples:
  • Koalas and Eucalyptus trees
  • Ants and Red Embauba trees
• The Home relationship is characterized by reciprocal giving and receiving, mutual vulnerability, interdependence and an ongoing commitment.
  • Shade and Seeds are mostly one-sided in terms of pure giving. Home is where a given exchange occurs.
• Home relationships can be one-on-one or within a group.
• Cecil’s examples included:
  • A college student who drew close to prisoners while helping them prepare for life on the outside of prison.
  • A small urban youth group whose members came from a wide range of schools, yet they were able to become valued friends.
  • Individual teenagers who were missing a father in their lives, with whom Cecil built deep personal relationships. These relationships developed over time into a friendship of equals.
• Jesus describes a Home relationship where He and the Father take up residence in us. The Biblical example is Zaccheus, who became a different person when he felt a Home relationship with Jesus.
• Seed relationships can advance to Home relationships when the mentor becomes more vulnerable and the mentee develops the skills to reach out to the mentor.
• Home relationships are significant because they can be a Root for someone else. Home relationships can be the way that you help another person become a Legacy Tree. 
• While Legacy Trees in the forest help all kinds of trees, they can identify trees of their species and provide something extra to them. In the human forest, Home relationships are a place for us to provide a little something extra, with intentionality, knowing we are trying to help others become Legacy Trees. 
• The Big Thought of this lesson is: Create deep, interdependent relationships with individuals or groups, so you can provide roots for someone else.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 7

1. Cecil gave examples of mutual symbiotic relationships: Koalas and Eucalyptus trees, ants and Red Embauba trees, fungi and trees. Can you think of other examples in nature of mutual symbiotic relationships?

2. “Symbiotic” means “living together.” In nature, it’s where two different species live together. As Cecil pointed out in the video, we can get sloppy and let our Home relationships slip into something less. For example, if the koala abandons the tree, what happens to the relationship? Think about your Home relationships and whether any of them need a revitalization of “doing life together.”

3. For many people, the keyword for the “Home” lesson is vulnerability. “Vulnerability” often indicates weakness, but it also takes strength to be vulnerable. What does it mean to you to demonstrate vulnerability to another person?

4. During your class time, hopefully you got around to the question of how to foster or improve the Home relationship within your small group. How can you add elements of Home to change the relationships within your group?

• Mutual giving and receiving
• Interdependence
• Ongoing commitment
• Honesty, acceptance and complete confidence
• Vulnerability

5. Within the Legacy Tree metaphor, a Home relationship can become a Root for you and/or the other person(s). How can you intentionally change a relationship so that it becomes more of an anchor for the both of you, and thus become a Root?

6. It’s incredible to think that Jesus wants to make His home with us, as He did with Zaccheus. How can you have a closer Home relationship with Jesus, in order for that relationship to become a Root for you?

 

8. Sacrifice

Key points of the video:

• In the case of a tree, sacrifice is not limited to the harvesting of the tree. And in humans, sacrifice does not necessarily lead to our deaths. There are other ways to look at sacrifice.
• Cecil outlined three ways we can sacrifice:
  • Hazardous vocations that put us in danger
  • Urgent decision, such as the man who lost his life shielding a colleague during a terror shooting
  • Purposeful choice, which is what Jesus modeled with both his life and death, and what most people can enact at some point(s) in their lives.
• The working definition of sacrifice is: “The surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.”
• So Sacrifice implies great cost, great change, and greater good.
• Cecil examined how Jesus modeled this with his life choices, to come to earth in the first place, to surrender his family carpentry business and a blossoming career as a rabbi, and to take the role of a humble servant.
• Four ideas for making our lives smaller in order to sacrifice:
  • Making our possessions smaller
  • Making our schedules smaller, or more flexible
  • Making our egos smaller
  • Making our personal dreams smaller
• The most common sacrifice is sacrificing for family, particularly children. But other forms may be for society, for principles, for justice, for God’s kingdom, and so on.
• Cecil gave examples of sacrifice, including his own, before discussing the sacrifice of 17^th century priest and author Francois Fenelon. In his case, Fenelon stood up to the Pope for what he believed in, and was punished for it. But even in his punishment, Fenelon sacrificed his ego and status to focus on helping others.
• There were new observations about the Pyramid of Providing, including the observation that God actually rewards us in some way when we give of ourselves, and those rewards are greater as we ascend the Pyramid. This is in keeping with a key quote from Jesus: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.”
• The class worked through case studies to determine how to apply the Pyramid to decision-making.
• The Big Thought of this lesson is: Make purposeful choices to give in truly sacrificial ways when you see the opportunity to serve a greater good.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 8

1. A few lessons ago, at the start of the “What the Tree Provides” section, Cecil stressed that we must be intentional if we are going to achieve significance. In this lesson, Cecil defined three implementations of Sacrifice: Hazardous Vocation, Urgent Decision and Purposeful Choice. How does each of these fit the requirement of intentionality?

2. Jesus was shown in the lesson to have modeled a life of Sacrifice for us. In what ways did Jesus sacrifice? Can you think of other ways not mentioned in the lesson? (One area to explore is the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness).

3. The four ways to make your life smaller to prepare for Sacrifice were:

• Making your possessions smaller
• Making your schedule smaller or more flexible
• Making your ego smaller
• Making your personal dreams smaller

Which one(s) of these do you struggle with? Which one(s) have you made some progress on? What else can you do to make your life smaller?

4. Consider a time when you have either provided or witnessed Sacrifice. What made it sacrificial, according to the following definition:

• The providing person experienced great change in their lives
• The sacrifice was costly to the providing person
• The sacrifice served a greater good than personal benefit to the provider

5. Does it make sense to you that according to God’s purpose, if you give, you will receive? Why or why not?

6. Take some time to deeply consider Cecil’s statement that What the Tree Is will lead you into the right choices in What the Tree Provides.

1. How do the core values of your Trunk help you determine where to invest your Providing?
2. How do the talents and interests of your Branches help you determine what opportunities to seize when Providing?

 

9. What the Tree Needs / Dormancy

Key points of the video:

• What the Tree Needs
  • Cecil began with a re-introduction to basic tree facts and to the Legacy Tree series thus far.
  • Recalling his prior discussion on coordinating efforts to help a congregation whose sanctuary had burned, Cecil talked about God’s promise to fill him up again and again when he was empty.
  • Similarly, God causes us to renew. This is What the Tree Needs.
  • The four parts to this section are:
    • Dormancy
    • Nourishment
    • Pruning
    • Sunshine
• Dormancy
  • Trees are categorized as Deciduous or Coniferous. While Deciduous trees dive into deep dormancy in the winter, Coniferous trees undergo a less radical change. They curtail new growth and operate with reduced energy.
  • People act similarly in their need for downtime. “Deciduous” people need deeper downtime than “Coniferous” people.
    • Still, Coniferous people need a way to switch off and allow things to happen rather than driving forward constantly.
    • There may be a mapping of extrovert and introvert to Coniferous and Deciduous, but it’s not clearly the case.
  • Just as different trees have different dormancy triggers and durations, so do people. Either way, trees absolutely need their brand of dormancy.
    • Almond tree – The Deciduous tree with the shortest dormancy
    • Black olive tree – Deprived of dormancy by being stationed indoors, this tree’s life span will shorten from 500 years to less than 10.
  • Jesus regularly disconnected from His busy life to reconnect with his roots to God. As a result, He was more powerful when he returned to doing.
  • Purposes of Dormancy include: gain self-awareness, achieve solitude, and reconnect with God (or be found by God).
  • Dormancy leads naturally into the next two attributes of What the Tree Needs: Physical, spiritual and relational Nourishment, and Pruning our Branches to reshape our lives.
  • The Big Thought of this lesson is: Identify your style of dormancy, and use your downtime to reconnect with who you are.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 9

1. During the lesson, you identified whether you are Deciduous (needing deeper Dormancy) or Coniferous (needing less). Have you always been this way? How have your needs changed over time? How have you changed your approach to Dormancy as a result? 

2. What is your favorite way to unwind during Dormancy?

3. It’s one thing to unwind. It’s another to reconnect to God and to yourself. How important is it to you to reconnect to God during Dormancy? How can you approach this relationship differently during Dormancy?

4. A favorable outcome of Dormancy is self-awareness. Practice the principle today by taking some time to reconnect to yourself, to What the Tree Is. (If you didn’t complete the questions and exercises during What the Tree Is, take time to re-examine them). What new insights did you find? How will your “Doing” change through this exercise of “Being”?

5. Based on this lesson, what thing(s) will you change in the way you approach Dormancy?

6. Is there someone in your life that needs to attend to Dormancy? If so, how can you help them by sharing what you’ve learned?

 

10. Nourishment

Key points of the video:

• Leaves are the food generation station of the tree. If leaves don’t have the right balance of water and minerals, they won’t produce food properly. Similarly, we need the right balance of inputs in order to be productive.
• The lesson covers three types of nourishment: Physical, Spiritual and Relational.
• In particular, the lesson covers:
  • The single best guideline for physical nourishment.
  • The three components of spiritual nourishment.
  • And the five vitamins of relational nourishment.

• The guideline that applies across the physical nourishment of diet, sleep and exercise is, “Make better bad choices.” For example, if you break your diet to have a milkshake, get the small, not the large.

• The three components of spiritual nourishment are:
  • Have a heart for God (and a hunger for God)
  • Trust in Jesus (as your Savior, and trust his teachings enough to live them)
  • Live in the Holy Spirit (learn the ways to listen to the Spirit as described in the Branches session, and then follow)
  • These components drive our commitment to disciplines like prayer, Bible study, worship and so forth, rather than the other way around.
• German researcher Peter Wohlleben noted how his team found a beech tree stump that had been sustained for at least 400 years by other trees in its fungal network. Trees benefit when they help other trees, as it protects the overall forest environment to prevent exposures in the canopy when trees die. Cecil mapped this to God’s circle of giving, where we help others and are helped by others.
• Three ways in which people provide to us are Shade, Seeds and Home, just as we provide to others through those methods.
  • Shade can be difficult to accept because we may refuse kindness even when we need it.
  • Shade can be difficult to accept because we may not think we need mentoring at this stage of our lives.
• The five vitamins (key nourishing phrases) in Home relationships are:
  • I love you
  • I need your love
  • I was wrong; I’m sorry. Will you please forgive me?
  • May I help?
  • Thank you
• The Big Thought for this lesson is two-fold:
  • Maintain your physical, spiritual and relational nourishment.
  • Nourish yourself spiritually by having a heart for God, trusting Jesus, and living in the Holy Spirit.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 10

1. Cecil talked about our need for regular physical, spiritual and relational nourishment. What process do you have for staying on track to regularly nourish yourself in these areas? What could you improve? 

2. The five vitamins of relational nourishment are the phrases:

• I love you

• I need your love
• I was wrong; I’m sorry. Will you please forgive me?
• May I help?
• Thank you

Cecil said that we may have to model these phrases in a relationship in order to hear them back. Which of these are the easiest and hardest for you to say?

3. We can fool ourselves into thinking we are going deeper than a surface level of discipleship. What will you do to further develop the “Trinity of Spiritual Nourishment”: A heart for God, a trust in Jesus, and a life in the Holy Spirit?

4. Cecil has talked in a couple of lessons now about God’s circle of giving. What does it say about God and His kingdom that He designed relationships to help each other? 

5. We can tend to refuse help. Do you resist the kindness of Shade and the mentoring of Seeds? What did you find useful in the lesson to help in accepting the provision of others?

6. Consider the image of a stool with three legs, perfectly in balance. Imagining physical, spiritual and relational nourishment as the three legs, are you in balance? Which is lacking? What is the cost to you of being out of balance?

 

11. Pruning

Key points of the video:

• Trees have “brains” in their roots, have intelligence, and make decisions. The decision to prune branches, fruit or leaves is an example.
  • Self-pruning occurs when a branch is ineffective in production, so the tree decides to shut it off and starve it of nutrients.
• In the Legacy Tree model, Branches are the opportunities we take for significance in using our talents, gifts, passions and interests.
• However, just as a tree can have too many branches or weaker branches, a person can need to prune branches – to cut back on opportunities.
• There are four reasons to prune a tree, and they map to the pruning we need to do in our lives.
  • Control the shape of the tree. In our case, we need to determine the overall shape of our lives and what our lives need to look like. We must examine the opportunity cost of doing one activity at the expense of another.  Even Jesus weighed opportunity cost when he left the people of Capernaum behind to expand his ministry.
  • Direct growth. We can become stagnant and need new challenges. Or we may feel called to move in a new direction.
  • Increase productivity. We want to increase the amount and quality of what we contribute. Sometimes this requires greater focus, like the light of a laser, rather than delivering quantity, like the light of the sun.
  • Maintain health. Our health can be drained physically, mentally and emotionally. A tree can be drained by supporting dead or diseased branches. We must recognize when our health is potentially affected and must choose to cut back.
• There are four steps to pruning an activity:
  • Identify the problem with the activity and why it needs to go.
  • Decide whether to reduce involvement or quit altogether.
  • Create and execute an exit strategy. This includes setting a timeframe to exit, notifying affected people, executing closure activities, and delivering sincere final messages. If there is time, it may also include cultivating a successor.
  • Trust the Holy Spirit to provide a way out and a way forward.

• The Big Thought of this lesson is: Prune your activities wisely to become more efficient and to stimulate new growth.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 11

1. Cecil listed four reasons to prune: Shape, Growth, Productivity, Health. Think about an activity now where you might need to prune. Which reason(s) do you have to prune this activity?

2. Cecil listed four steps of pruning: 

• Identify the problem

• Decide whether to reduce or quit
• Create and execute an exit strategy
• Trust the Holy Spirit to provide

How can you apply these steps to the same activity that you considered pruning in the prior question?

3. Consider the role of others in your pruning. Sometimes they are in a better position to point out to you that you need pruning and can suggest alternatives. Who can you talk to about your pruning needs?

4. Think of two examples of pruning in the past: a time when you were glad you pruned, and a time when you regretted it. Use the four reasons to prune and the four steps of pruning as a way to reflect on these events.

5. Think back on the Sacrifice lesson and its concept of preparing for sacrifice by making our lives smaller. How can you use pruning to make your schedule smaller and thus more accessible to others? How will this help you to provide better for others? 

6. Do you know someone who would benefit from pruning? It could be your child, sibling, parent, friend or colleague. How can you share your knowledge with them and model pruning for them?

 

12. Sunshine

Key points of the video:

• Trees strenuously attempt to collect sunshine to drive the photosynthesis process. They optimize this effort by arranging branches and leaves in a Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical equation that explains many natural processes.
  • The key point is that while a tree’s shape may look random or jumbled, its shape starts from an orderly pattern.
• Decreases and increases in sunshine also plunge the tree into dormancy in the fall and break it out of dormancy in the spring.
• Similarly, the metaphor of Sunshine is what breaks you out of dormancy and gets you going, motivating you to serve God’s kingdom again and again.

• As examples, Cecil refers to the Sunshine of various people:
  • Jesus was driven by Compassion. Scripture frequently tells us how Jesus felt compassion toward people.
  • Cecil’s own Sunshine is People Development.
  • Botanist and inventor George Washington Carver: Education.
  • Statesman Thomas Jefferson: Vision.
  • Actress Jeanne Cooper: Responsibility.
  • Retired football player and sports announcer Jason Witten: Honor.
  • Event planner Paige Chenault: Generosity.
  • Cecil’s spiritual mother Frankey Commer: Nursing people.
• Cecil connected Sunshine to Branches, saying that our Branches (talents, gifts, interests, passions) perform best when exposed to Sunshine.
• The Big Thought of this lesson is: Motivate yourself with the catalyst of Sunshine to drive all the other aspects of being a Legacy Tree.
• Cecil then summarized the series and offered final thoughts, including:
  • Going forward with Legacy Tree concepts with intenationality.
  • Observing trees to remember the Legacy Tree concepts.
  • Staying in touch with the Legacy Tree project through his web sites and through sequels.

Participants’ Daily Questions after Session 12

1. Jesus showed such compassion to people that Cecil argued compassion was Jesus’ sunshine. The prefix “com” means “with,” “together” or “in association with.” So you could say, Jesus acted “with passion.” Looking at Sunshine as your “with-passion” element, what would you say is your Sunshine?

2. Here’s another way of examining your Sunshine: What is it that you makes you say “yes?” When Cecil answered this question, it pointed him toward his Sunshine of people development. How about you?

3. Consider how the parts of the Legacy Tree work together. How does your Trunk of Core Values point toward or interact with your Sunshine? How do the layers of your Pyramid of Providing indicate your Sunshine? 

4. Looking at the prior question, consider the opposite: How does your Sunshine impact your Trunk of Core Values? How does your Sunshine inform your Pyramid choices? How does your Sunshine cause you to take risks with the Kingdom opportunities related to your Branches?

5. As you look back on “The Legacy Tree,” what are the key points you’ll take away from the lessons, in terms of:

• Facts you learned about trees
• The tree metaphor of your life
• Striving toward significance

6. Name any concrete actions that you’re going to take to make your life more significant as a result of the Legacy Tree series.

Now that you are finished, please visit www.legacytreelessons.com, find the "Legacy Forest" section, see what others are saying about how they are becoming legacy trees, and share your thoughts on how you are changing your life for significance.