When I'm 80

Today I was asked to think about what I want people to say about my life when I am 80.  And since I am only 21, I have a lot of time till this day actually comes.  No matter what I write down about what I want people to think about me in the future: she was always willing to talk to anyone, motivated everyone she met to be a better person, helped those around her to find God, put others before her, always striving to improve, humble, committed; it’s impossible to know if this is really what people will say about me. Or is it?  The only person in control of my life is me (besides God).  I have the next 59 years to live my life and determine how people will see me.  What if I started now, could I guarantee that this is what people would say about me?  I don’t see why not.  If I wrote these descriptions of how I want my life to be and looked that them every day and made sure that I lived everyday in such a way that it represented these qualities; there is no reason that people would describe my life any differently than how I hope. 

But let’s be honest, do all of my actions truly represent the list that I told you up above of how I hope to live my life? Why is it that we constantly do things on a daily basis that cause us to go against what we hope to stand for and represent?  To state the obvious, the devils is often behind our lack of motivation and drive to be the person that God has planned for us to be and that we hope to be one day.   He is so good at placing the thought of “I will start tomorrow” in our heads that tomorrow never comes. He is so good at distracting us with worldly desires and material goods that we lose focus on our true goals and we start to work towards being who the world says we should be.  

  So my goal for us this week: write down 10 things you want people to say about you when your 80.  Hang them up on your wall and look at them every night and decide if someone would describe you as this person based on your actions from the day.