Sometimes it is funny how God works to bring a topic for this blog to mind. We had my mother-in-law’s funeral a few weeks ago and it was interesting the things people said about her – especially the pastor. Really? Was that the woman I knew for 25 years? Hmmm.
I have had several women I know, who recently buried their moms. Another one her grandmother. We lost a police officer in the line of duty in our town a week past. Thousands of people died in a tsunami and many more are dying in the Middle East. People get cancer or other devestating health diagnosis on a daily basis. Death is a part of living in this sinful world.
Yesterday in my journal I was trying to ponder this question: “What would you like said at your funeral about you and your life?” How do I want to be remembered and am I living up to my own ideal? It made me think about what I need to tell others whom I love and who have impacted my life. What in their character helped inspire me? What are the kind of things I might say of them at their funeral? Why wait till they are dead to tell them how I feel? I even started making a list of people to write to. Sometimes even the people I talk to the most I may not be expressing to them how I see them and how much they mean to me. Just a thought of an area where I hope to maybe expend some effort.
Make yourself an encouragement file if you haven’t one already – and when you get notes that speak to your heart or affirm you and encourage you – put them in there. Some day you may need those words again to remind yourself that you are important in the lives of those around you.
In my daughter’s Sunday classes at church, she is encouraged to be a “bucket filler” to find ways to encourage others by word or deed. Maybe we need to be “casket fillers.” Does that sound morbid? But what a better way to impact the lives of those around us than to know that when they die, they will have had a bucket/file/casket filled of love and affirmation? Just a thought.
This morning I came across this blog post by Leslie Vernick on “What would you like said about you at your funeral.” I think she did a better job than I could have. Please click the link and check her out.
What would YOU like said about you at your funeral?
I hate this question…because it makes me think WHO will even be at my funeral! I’m not an extrovert. They’re the ones that seem to draw the crowds, but if I had a few people who’s lives I’ve deeply touched, then whatever they have to say would be enough! What do I want people to say? That she lived life honestly, didn’t sugarcoat the hardships, loved as much as she could, endured to the end (never gave up hope,) and cared enough to reach out.
Here’s a hard question for you! What would you put on your tombstone? I hate that question more!
Tombstone? How about “What could be better?” I’ll be partying with Jesus on streets of gold!