The Regret List

Hello Readers!  Here it is Saturday and Lake Erie effect snow is supposed to be hitting here and there, with some expected as far north as we are.  Are you preparing some great snacks for Superbowl Sunday?  At this point, I can’t remember who is playing.

Yesterday on the Fox News online site, they had an article written by a health care professional who has worked with the sick and dying.  She listed the five most repeated regrets that men told her when she asked.

.I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
I wish I didn't work so hard.
I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.

How would these regrets compare to those of a person who loved Christ?  Or those of a woman? I wonder.  Let’s imagine what the regret list might look like.  Do you agree?  Do you have others you would add?

I wish I would have loved God and my family more.
I wish I would have spent more time with God and my family.
I wish I would have treated others more kindly.
I wish I would have given more of my time, talent, and treasures.
I wish I would have been a better example for my children to follow, so that they might find a relationship with God and reach heaven.

The author, Bronnie Ware from AARP, correctly notes at the top of the article that death is still such a taboo subject.  We all go through it; so why is it so hush-hush.  Maybe it is because everything in our society and in our culture is the antithesis of death.  We ignore it; we hide from it; we are very, very afraid of it.  Or sometimes, worse, the media mocks and makes fun of it.  For some, the fear of death is so paralyzing that they can scarcely live a normal life in any sense of the word.

With Christ, we have hope.  With Christ, we know that there is a life after death.  With Christ, we find solace and comfort, and relief from our burdens.  And yet, it doesn’t hurt to construct a bucket list of things that we should be doing now so as not to have the regrets at the end.
Hope someone wins the Superbowl!!  Whoever it is.