Make a tremendous difference in the life of a grieving person. With a few minutes of your time, you can text an encouraging Thought for the Day to someone whose world collapsed when a loved one passed away. You can even text the same message to several people at once. Texting is a quick and effective way to reach out to people who need to know that someone else actually cares about what they are going through.
You can send original text messages or famous quotes. It’s a smart idea to start developing a repertoire of inspirational quotes and sayings to draw from. The fastest way to do this is to go to one or more religious websites and sign up to have a verse from the Bible or other Holy book sent to your email inbox daily. Copy-paste these to a Quote file on your computer desktop so that they will be handy. You can also bookmark websites that have famous quotes from Mark Twain, Ronald Reagan, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, or other amazing figures from history. Select a different quote to send each day. Since you will be texting the same quote to everyone on your list, send religious sayings on some days and secular ones on others.
Sending text messages to more than one person at a time is a great time saver and easy to do. On your phone, go to “Messages” on your menu or app. Select “Send a Message,” then type in the Inspirational Thought or quote, being sure that you credit the person who said it or note the chapter-verse designation. Double-check the message to be sure it is correct, then go to “Contacts” and select the name of the first person you want to send it to. Go back to your Contact list and keep selecting the names of the rest of the people on your list. Now press “Send.” If you set aside a few minutes each day to do this, you will lift the spirits of your clients as they try to resume their lives.
When you counsel grieving families, ask them if they would like to receive an Inspirational Thought for the Day on their cell phone for a month, and that this is a free service offered by your funeral home to help families through the adjustment time after the funeral. Let them know that they can text or call you back any time to talk to someone. Have pre-printed “Thought for the Day” cards available in your office so that they can fill in their cell phone number. If they don’t have a cell phone or cannot text on their phone, offer to call, email or mail the Thought for the Day to them. The first 30 days after the funeral are when people are most vulnerable. By reaching out to them with an encouraging text message, you can enable them to draw strength both from the message and from knowing that you cared enough to take time to send it to them.
