“Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead” and Other Epitaphs You Don’t Want on Your Tombstone

I certainly don’t want my husband and children singing “Ding, Dong, the witch is dead” when I am gone!

Or how about this one:

Here lies my wife,
Here lies she;
Hallelujah!
Hallelujee!

Um…So, this week I am thinking about how I want to be remembered when I am gone. Then, after all the thinking, comes the hard part: changing. 🙂

Remember the picture of Susanna Wesley’s gravestone from yesterday? She had 19 children, and one of them, John Wesley, wrote this:

” Do all the good you can.

By all the means you can.

In all the ways you can.

In all the places you can.

At all the times you can.

To all the people you can.

As long as ever you can.” 

I have this quote stuck on my refrigerator. Underneath it, I wrote “We may only have today to do good.”

We all plan to be kind, but sometimes we forget. But, if we keep in mind that TODAY is all we may have, today is the day for action, I think we’ll be more prone to pay that small kindness: a special cup of cocoa for your child,  a hug, a smile, a phone call to  a lonely person, a note of encouragement to someone who is down, a quick phone call to that mother of young children.

Sometimes we don’t feel like it. Sometimes, we feel like WE are the one who could use a little kindness. Sometimes we stop being kind to someone who has hurt us or is unkind themselves. Of course, this is wrong, because kindness is one of those “laws” of God that are not optional. {sigh….sometimes it is SO hard, I know!}

Kindness is the ability to love people more than they deserve,” Elizabeth George, A Woman’s Walk with God.

And we are called to be kind,(Ephesians 4:32) because God is kind. God’s lovingkindness is one of his chief attributes.

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Psalms 36:7

I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. Isaiah 63:7

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Psalms 63:3

Jesus is our example. I wanted to see exactly how Jesus went about doing good, so I began reading throught the gospels and marking with a highlighter all of the times Jesus was kind to someone: He healed, fed, touched the sick and outcasts of society, he was moved with compassion enough to do something.  His demeanor was others focused, and I know He can help me to follow Him in this way.  So, plan on kindness today!

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