1000 Last Words: A Series of Challenges

What if you were told that you had only 1000 words left to say? No typing, no texting, no signing, no drawing – just 1000 words that you would ultimately leave as a lasting impression of your legacy?

Jeff and I recently watched the Eddie Murphy movie titled, “1000 Words.” The movie wasn't great, but the premise really got me to thinking... What if we had to budget our words? What would we say and to whom would we say it?

Most of you would quickly point out that I’m a talker and I would be out of luck, and out of words, in a mere matter of minutes if not seconds. So I set out to prove everyone, myself included, wrong…

Challenge 1.) 

Put into words the things I would like to say to a select few in my life in 1000 words or less.

I’m happy to report that with a lot of thought and a ton of time (this project took me three weekends to complete), what started as a blank Microsoft Word document became a page filled with the things I would say to the most important people in my life.  I ended up writing to 10 different people and while I won’t share specifics of what I wrote, I will give a breakdown of my most frequently used words and phrases:

• “Love” or other form of the word (loveable, loves, etc)- 25
• Happy- 12 
• Thanks, thankful, thank you- 12
• Best (best husband, best boys, mom, dad, brother, LIFE, etc)- 11
• Blessed, bless, blessing- 6
• God- 5
• Proud- 4
• “I’m sorry,”- 3 

Notably missing from this list are hurtful, hateful words. I try to avoid thinking or speaking any words that could prove hurtful (and hope that most people will agree I do a pretty good job!), but wouldn't we all remain constantly aware of how impactful our words are if we didn't have enough left to make the mistake of hurting someone, with the understanding that we might not have enough words to take them back?

This was a fun challenge and I’m really glad I did it. What I learned in doing this is that in the end, there are some people for whom I simply didn’t have enough words in the world to let them know just how much I love them. This realization, or confirmation really, inspired three follow-up challenges…


Challenge 2.) 

Use my words wisely and employ them to encourage positivity, to share the Gospel, to incite laughter, and to show love.

I figure that since we don’t have word banks or budgets and are blessed with the opportunity to say whatever we want as often as we’d like, I want to remember that I should be responsible in choosing what I say – I never want to hurt anyone or leave the wrong impression of who I am or what I stand for.

Challenge 3) 

Do everything I can to SHOW people how I feel...

because in the end, words can never be enough. I can tell Jeff that he is the love of my life and how lucky I am to have him, or tell the boys how blessed I am to be their momma, or tell my brother how proud I am of the man he’s become - but if I don’t SHOW them, my words will be a waste.

Challenge 4.)  

Tell people how I feel.

After all, what's the point of writing something to someone and never sharing what's on your heart?

You have a lifetime of words to use and share - how will you use them?  After these challenges, I'm glad to say that I know.

*In case you were wondering, this blog is 618 words!