I was thinking about what to inscribe on my dad’s gravestone, and I immediately thought of “found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2) The idea is to have fulfilled your duties as steward of the earthly life God entrusted to you, and to be found by him “faithful.” In the “parable of the talents” in Matthew 25:21, he adds to faithfulness “good.” It is one thing to complete a task entrusted to you, another to do it with goodness in your heart. I observed early on that my dad had the “faithful” gene, and it seemed to be passed on to me to germinate. Knowing that with only three-quarters of his life in the books he already could have earned the aforementioned commendation, I set these two words as my personal goal; to finish my life in such a way to have been proven faithful to my Lord, wife, children, church,  employer, country and community. In all these realms my dad excelled in faithfulness and goodness. Only this time there will be no bronze plaques, lapel pins or medals to give credit, but a brand new responsibility in a corner of the heavenly realm.   

Carroll Merritt Reynolds 7/21/21 – 11/18/10