10 Things Learned at Any Funeral

1. Life is very short.
The time you have to accomplish your goals, see your dreams, and spend time with those you love is limited.

2. What you do in life impacts others and changes the world.
You make a difference in the lives of those around you, for the good or the bad. Your choices impact everyone, especially those closest to you. If you think you’re only hurting yourself when you do stupid things, you’re wrong. Because of your birth, the world will never be the same. And because of your death, the world will never be the same.

3. When we cry and mourn at a funeral, we’re not only feeling bad for the one who died and their family, we’re also coming to grips with our own mortality and the mortality of those closest to us. That causes us to mourn even more, and for people (including ourselves) who haven’t even died yet.

4. It can and does happen to you.
Often when thinking of tragedy, people think or say things like,” that could never happen to me.” The death of a friend or a loved one shows that it will. You’re terminal. Surprise! You’re going to die!

5. You could die one second after reading this post.
We, and those we love, are never promised tomorrow. We have to live this day as if it was our last.

6. Without Jesus, you’re going to hell!
Whether you want to believe this or not, I think everyone comes to understand this in some rudimentary way while going through the death of a loved one.

7. Times of tragedy, adversity, and great sadness bring frineds and family close together, but if not intentionally managed can drive families apart after the event.

8. No one grieves the same- period. Don’t judge people according to their emotions or actions shown while grieving.

9. Sharing (publically at a funeral) is just as much about you and the people there as it is the person who died.

10. The physical is temporary.
While looking at a loved one’s dead body, it becomes immediately obvious that (the body) is not the person you knew so well- that the thing (the person’s body) we associated with that person most of all, was only a shell for the living being they truley are. You realize that death is not the end, or the beginning, just a part of life.