You work hard. You have so many responsibilities. So many people depend on you.

Which is precisely why you have to be careful not to send your kids the wrong message. The author Donald Miller observed the multiple ways in which our kids might interpret all of our hard work.

I’ve built an office behind our house. Someday my daughter will look at it and think… ‘that’s where my dad worked to provide for us,’ and feel a little sentimental. What I never hope she thinks is, ‘that’s the place my dad loved more than me.’ Love is the only legacy that matters. Let’s not point our love in the wrong direction.

Our only real legacy is those we leave inside the lives we brought into this world.

That’s why Archie Manning left football earlier than he needed to. It’s why Ruth Bader Ginsburg specifically scheduled time to spend with her daughter in those early days of law school. It’s why when de Gaulle was at the height of his power, he reminded himself: “The presidency is temporary, family is permanent.”

So work hard. Provide for them. But make sure they know there is nothing in the world you love more than them.