How Will You Be Remembered?

Chuckle: A three year-old kissed his Mom goodnight. "I love you so much, that when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window."

Quote: "As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death." --Leonardo da Vinci 

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED?

"As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear him . . ." (Psalm 103:15-17 NIV).

If you are a Christian, no doubt you are well versed on God's eternal plan for you following your physical death. This morning, I want to share with you about death from a different perspective. Let's begin with these questions: If you were to die today, how would you be remembered? How do you want to be remembered by your family, friends, and acquaintances after you are gone? What would you like people to say about your life?

I think most of us would answer these questions something like this: "I would like to be remembered as a godly, kind, loving, caring, compassionate, and giving person -- as a good parent who gave his best to his family, etc." I doubt any of us would say we want to be remembered by how much money we made, the size of the house in which we lived, or the kind of car we drove. Yet, many of us are driven by a selfish desire for such material things in this life. However, when we come face to face with the prospect of death, our values immediately take on a more wholesome and spiritual quality. How about those values while you live?

So, you must live today the way you want to be remembered. People's opinions of you are being formed today by what you say and do; and each of us would be wise to pause and think about how we would want to be remembered, then work our way backwards to the present. Then start doing those things: loving, serving, giving, etc.

At the end of your life, what evidence will there have been that you were a Christian? Jesus said, "By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matthew 7:16 NIV). Here are some things that will determine how we are remembered, according to A. W. Tozer:  1. What we want most. 2. What we think most about. 3. How we use our money. 4. What we do with our leisure time. 5. The company we enjoy. 6. Who and what we admire. 7. What we laugh at.

Robert Morris said, "I hate funerals and would not attend my own if it could be avoided, but it is well for every person to stop once in a while to think of what sort of a collection of mourners he is training for his final event."

Love, Jerry & Dotse