Morbid question alert!
Have you ever thought about your own funeral? Have you ever given thought to who might be
there? What the service would look and
feel like? Who would stand up and speak
about you? More importantly, what your
spouse, parents or children might say about you during the eulogy? What about your friends or people from your
church?
As part of an exercise from a book I am reading, I went
through this visualization. Ironically,
it was quite a peaceful, eye-opening experience to walk through the details of
this moment. I have been to plenty of funerals
in my lifetime, but I think out of human nature, I have never allowed myself to
think about what it would be like to sit through my very own.
After I viewed my lifeless body and took my seat, I began to
imagine what my husband, kids and parents would say about me. Ultimately, their parting words about me are
all that truly matter. This is what I
heard:
“Lindsay loved life! She was a woman who always lived for the
moment - actively living life and always having time to find beauty in the simplest
places.”
“She was one of the rare people who
was never too busy to stop what she was doing and be with anyone who needed a
listening ear. She was a great comforter.”
“Lindsay oozed the love of Jesus
from her pores and that love was felt by anyone who was around her.”
“Mom loved us fiercely. She gave us the freedom to find our own inner
voices. She never doubted us and gave us
the confidence to find our purpose.”
“Mom believed in us so much,
fostered our God-given gifts and gave us strength to follow our dreams.”
“Mom always gave more than she
received. I only hope I can be the same kind of mom to my kids.”
Sounds nice, doesn’t
it?
Going through this exercise of watching my own funeral
really allowed me to see that those comments ARE REALLY what I should be
striving for in life. Those comments,
rolled up, have now become my new “life vision.”
What I learned is that my constant desire to achieve and run
the perfect household may give me some sort of control and sense of order, but those
things are just temporary and ultimately do not give me ultimate
happiness. I have learned that my
current way of life is incongruity with the life that I want to be remembered
for. Some things need to change.
Today, I encourage you to go through this exercise. Think about every little detail. What things need to change in your life to
start living the life you want to be remembered for? Do you need God in your life again? Do you need to redirect your focus from
material things to the intangible gifts of life? Are you like me and need to take the
“business” out of your family life and start being in the moment? Whatever it is, I encourage you to try
this…and see what is revealed. You might
learn something new and that my friends, is a true gift!
