What Will They Say About Me at my Funeral?

There are three things people talk about after a funeral.

1.  How memorable the service was.  (Nice neutral term there for those of you who don't quite know what to say when you feel the service didn't accurately capture the person you loved.)
2.  How sad it is that the only family reunion your family has is at a funeral.
3.  What one would like to have at his/her own funeral.

Now that I've entertained the idea that serial killers could be reading my blog (this is where you laugh), I thought this would be a good time to pull this blog post up from the "drafts" section and put it in the "published" one.

So, dearly beloved, let me entertain the thought...what will they say about me at my funeral?

Family:
(crying...at least I hope there's crying.)  "Remember those nights at the dinner table?  She always served dinner with a generous portion of love.  No  matter what it was, she had us on her mind the whole time.  


"Wait-was that a good thing?  Remember the time she forgot the rice?  Or the time she served us salad with pancakes?  And what of the smoke alarm calling us to dinner?  Maybe she LIKED to see us running with hands over our ears and towels under our armpits, running to fan the smoke detectors."


"Yeah.  And remember when she was fasting?  Maybe she didn't eat because she knew what it was going to taste like!"


"No, that was just Mom."  


"Yeah, you're right.  Well, remember how much fun it was sometimes?  (One of my rule-bound children might say weird, but I think the other two would call it fun.)  Like when Dad went out of town we'd have pizza and she'd actually let us have ROOT BEER and then we'd have a burping contest, RIGHT THERE AT THE TABLE!!!??"  


Then another child would say, "Yeah, until Grandpa did it with us and then she quit.  She said it made her feel sick."


"Remember when she had us SING the prayer instead of SAY it?  That was...ummm...that was Mom, alright!"  


"Yeah!  And remember the time that we played that game where we had to decide which description fit Mom?  I still don't know why she didn't think, "grumpy as a bear," was a good one!"

Hopefully now they would be laughing.

Friends:
(crying...again, I hope someone is crying!)  "Wow.  I can't believe she's gone.  I don't know if we can talk about the "Rachael joke" the same ever again.  I mean, it seems distasteful to call every bad joke a "Rachael joke," now.  Man, she could say the non-funniest things!"


"Yes, but at least she was funny, even if she wasn't trying to be.  Remember the time she threw my baby into the Christmas tree?"  (Yes, it's true.)  


"Oh, yes!  That poor child has never looked at a Christmas tree the same.  What about the time she set off the fire alarm at school?  Remember when she fell off the stage at church...and fell on the drums at the school assembly...and fell, well, she fell a lot!"


"And who could forget when she...oh.  Uh, nevermind."

Blog Readers Who Don't Know Me in Real Life:
"Oh, my GOSH!  Who WAS this lady, anyway?  Reading it was fun, but she must have been dangerous to be around!  Scary.  By the way, are they going to place a gas pump in her casket?  And did they do her makeup with Sharpies?"

Ok.  This might have been a bit morbid, but I thought it would be fun to write and maybe a little fun to read.  I expect a few people might mention some of these stories one day, but the one thing I want said (take notes) is that I lived by the motto I saw on a page in high school about leadership...

"Brighten your own corner of the world."

I have never forgotten that and it is something I try to live each day.  I don't dream of changing the world.  I dream of having a greater influence than that by the mark I leave on people in my own little corner of the world.  Jesus put it well when He said, "Walk in the light as I am in the light."

And you...what will they say about you?  What do you want to be remembered for and what are you doing to live up to that?