Give Flowers to the Living

I always notice the flowers at a funeral.

When I am officiating, the flowers seem especially comforting and perhaps brighten the mood.

At one funeral, in particular, I was actually a bit frustrated with the number of flowers that surrounded the platform and casket.

I had spent many hours counseling the deceased about her issues with self-image. She felt worthless. Her boys didn’t call or come visit. She had little interaction with anyone. She was alone and felt unloved.

So, when I saw what seemed to be an unusual number of flower arrangements in the chapel, it made me sad that she couldn’t see the flowers.

No one sent her flowers when she was living!

I’ve often seen leaders make a similar mistake. They send few figurative flowers to their team. The leader is quick to critique, but slow to send love and words of life.

Then when a teammate moves on in his career, the leader spends a few remorseful days thinking about all the things he wished he had said about the teammate while employed at the company.

Leaders in the home face a similar challenge. Perhaps the home needs a fresh infusion of loving words and appreciation. Everyone needs loving words, every day.

Loving leaders miss few opportunities to offer words of life. It costs very little in time or dollars to flower a team in recognition and compassion.

Give flowers to the living.