Okay so yes the title is a little morbid you might think, but hear me out and you will see why I have chosen this title.
This past week a dear and precious friend of mine lost her father suddenly. Saturday night we were at the funeral home and as the preacher spoke he was telling all these wonderful stories of her dad. As he was about to finish up he made a comment that I have had ringing in my ears ever since then. He said "I really didn't have to get up here and say anything, because as all these people came through to pay their respects I realized that he basically preached his own funeral."
I looked around at that moment and saw the pews of the room filled with people who loved Charles and how they wiped the tears from their eyes obviously thinking about the void that their lives would have without him in it. I thought back to my own father's funeral and about all the people that came by and how they had such nice things to say about my dad. I knew these things about him, but it was still a comfort to hear them out loud. I realized at that moment that we all basically preach our own funerals that will come one day by the impact that we leave in other's lives. It was then that it dawned on me more than ever the importance of how we treat people. We can offer kindess and spread happiness or we can leave an impression on people that is the exact opposite.
I've thought a lot since that service and the preacher's words about the impact that certain people have had on my life, and I've thought even more so about the impression that I have left on the lives and in the minds and hearts of people that I come across. My mother and father spent all of my adolescent years teaching me the [most important rule perhaps] in life - the golden rule. After all gold is symbolic of being first place - so therefore that tells you that as a person that rule should always be the first and take presidence over the others. Treating others how we want to be treated is what we should all strive for.
I try to be cautious how I treat people and on those ocassions when I am hateful, rude or just basically socially unacceptable, well I feel bad and I should. I don't want the lasting impression that I leave on someone to be that kind of perception that I am mean, cold-hearted or insensitive. When the time comes that my children, a spouse or my family stand in the places of those this weekend that stood as final goodbyes were spoken or memories were reflected; I hope that I will have made them proud. I hope that when people think of me that I will have preached my own funeral with kind thoughts, pleasant recollections and smiles behind the tears.
As easy (too easy unfortunately some times) as it is to get upset, hurt someone's feelings, or speak without thinking of the repurcussions; it should be even more easy to overlook the indiscretions of others and speak a kind word or offer a helping hand to someone instead.
My dad always used to tell me that you should make a new friend every day and that if you are blessed enough you will at least have 6 of them to carry you in the end. It's my wish that for the remainder of my life that I will strive to leave such a positive impression on others that there will be no need for words to tell how I lived my life, that instead the line will go on and on of those that were impacted by me in a manner to which they wanted to stop by just to tell my family that I will be missed.
So just remember as you go through life to live it so that you can preach your own funeral by a multitude of people having nothing to say about you but good things.
