by 
Newsweek recently featured the Iraq War in the words of those that have fought and died in it. They took excerpts from letters over the total conflict and pieced together what was happening in different people’s lives during the time, occasionally injecting how the person died. Every time you read a person talking about coming home, and then read that a week or a day before they were to go home they were killed, you were struck with awe and sorrow.
And yet it was the letters– complete letters– at the back of the issue that really hit home. I believe that it’s a mandatory thing for each person going into a field of combat to write a “if you get this letter” letter. There were a few such letters, and they were filled with encouragement and hope– many of them talking of being right with God and seeing their loved ones later.
What are you leaving behind for your children? They say that there are two things that are certain: death and taxes. Most of you have filed your taxes, what have you done for your death?
Have you gotten a will? In some states if you have not spelled out what will happen with your estate should you and your spouse die the state gets it (including children) and they determine what is best.
But what are you leaving written to those that are left? Not just have you told them your favorite songs for your funeral or what you want done, but have you written them something? What would your youngest child know about their parent and their passion?
You cannot assume that you will never die. What you will leave behind in the case of the unexpected is up to you.
