"What do you want on your Tombstone?"

What do you want on your Tombstone?," the executioner asks a condemned man. "Cheese and pepperoni," the man replies in a memorable television commercial for Tombstone Pizza, the fastest-growing frozen pizza manufacturer in the United States.

Hmmm...I am sure not too many of us have considered at this point in our lives what we'd want on our tombstones... I know I never did...and now that I think about it, I don't care what it says!

To me, what matters MOST is what God thinks about my heart. God knows my heart, and He knows that my heart's truest desire is to live Him, breathe Him, and drink Him in every second of my life.

Consider the words of David:

"O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple." Psalm 63:1-8, Psalm 27:4

That is how I'd want to be remembered in how I lived my life! I'd want my funeral to be a gathering of family, friends, and acquaintances CELEBRATING God in a Praise Fest! There has to be music, food and festivity! No open casket, because then people would be focusing on my shell...it is not me! My spirit has returned to The most High.

No tears of sadness for me...I am with the Father! I'd want folks to openly share stories of how God used me to encourage them, pray with them, lay hands on them, or how I led them to Christ. That would be my eulogy...true words of how I allowed myself to be led by the Holy Spirit to reach outside of myself as an extension of God to help others. This also would serve as an encouragement for others to crawl out of their comfort zones to take on the serious commission that we were given as ministers of the Word. People have to step out in faith and allow God to use them outside of their comfort zones.

I'd want a compelling altar call to be presented, so that if there are any in attendance that do not know Christ as their Savior, that they make the decision for Christ right then and there. I'd want prayer counselors on hand to answer their questions, and have plenty of Bibles (NIV) on hand to hand out to those who need a bible.

And then after the funeral/celebration, I'd want this challenge issued: For people to seriously consider how they could turn their everyday lives into a true life of worship....and act upon it....remember--you are as close to God as you want to be!

So now that I've thought about it, I do know what I want on my tombstone, for the sake of my sons:

"She loved God with ALL of her heart, and she loved her neighbor as herself."

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