This morning as the kids ate their breakfast, I sat and watched the Today Show (which I never do). The few moments of the show that I watched captivated me, and at the same time made me really think about my family. Being Breast Cancer Awareness month, the Today Show was interviewing survivors of breast cancer, as well as families who have lost a loved one to this terrible disease.As they talked with these families the stories were mesmerizing. You instantly felt a connection to the women fighting for their lives, and to the families who had lost a loved one. It was as if they were speaking to us, the viewer directly. As I watched, there seemed to be a common theme among all of these families – they never saw it coming. One day life was great, everything was going according to “plan” and the next day they experienced a new normal that would change them forever. For some of these women the new normal was chemo, and treatments and life after cancer. For some of these families their new normal was finding a way to live without the person they loved and lost – their mother, their spouse, their friend, their aunt and the list goes on and on.
Hearing these stories made me think about a quote I heard last night “you don’t realize how special a moment is, until it becomes a memory.” It made me think about all the moments I have with my kids and my wife. I had to step back and think about what type of memory do I want to be for them, what do I want to leave them with when I am gone – how do I want to be remembered?
We all get so busy with life, kids, work, school that we often forget to take the time to live in the moment. To take time to enjoy what is right in front of us. We also forget to plan, and to prepare for our future. We tend to let life get in the way of making sure that if something like breast cancer struck our family that we would be prepared for it. For some its out of sight out of mind, for others its “that will never happen to me,” and for the majority its just being busy with life.
What we all need to do, is to make sure we are prepared. As a husband, as a Wife, as a dad, as a mom its our JOB to make sure if something happens to us and we pass, that our family, our children are protected. It’s our job, that if something happens to us and we live, that are are prepared and protected as well. Yes, at this point I am talking about life insurance. Life insurance is a powerful tool that can take care of, and protect our family if something tragic happens and we pass, but it can also be used as a tool to benefit your family if you LIVE. You control how you will be remembered by your family, and life insurance plays a role in that. If you were to be diagnosed with breast cancer today and pass away 6 months from now your family would be devastated, they just lost their mom, their spouse, and now on top of that if you were not prepared they stand to lose their house, their bedroom and their way of life.
As parents, we have the ability to control the burden that is left to our children and to our spouse. We have the ability to control how we will be remembered. Please take the time to prepare, please take the time to protect your family and their future, please make life insurance a priority for you and your family!