How to be Great

Last month, I attended my grandfather's funeral. I have always regarded my grandfather as a great man, but had never thought too much about why I thought he was great. When he died, I was touched by the many comments I read and heard from people. So many people, from all seasons of his life, commented on how he had affected them, and how they remembered his influence, even after many years.

As I was browsing through condolences on social media, I repeatedly came across the words "warm", "mentor", "nice", "smile", "kind", "example", "loving", and "inspiration". Multiple people recalled my grandfather as being a good home teacher, which is a testament of how he served others with love, and did not only regard his fellow man as a duty or chore. He loved children, and held many a crying child on his lap as he gave them a bit of candy he carried with him. Children loved him. One neighbor considered him a second father and learned much from him in his childhood years. One lady told of how she knew my grandfather when she was a young girl. On one occasion, she was being loud and silly at a party, when a person unkindly told her she needed to calm down and stop being so loud. My grandfather then stepped in and told her that he thought all young people should be happy. Another person said that she often felt out of place and judged. However, when she was around my grandpa, she always felt love and acceptance from him. I, too, never felt I needed to be anyone other than who I was to be loved by him. He did not condone bad choices, but he never held back love. He almost always had a smile on his face, and is one of the greatest examples of a life well-lived that I have. He was one of the greatest people I have known.

I share this experience because it was an important lesson for me. I often don't feel like I can be great. It is easy to be tricked into believing that greatness is reserved for the popular, the famous, the rich, those with big career successes, and those who do significant things for large groups of people, and are recognized for it. My grandfather was intelligent and successful in his career. He also served in the military and held several high positions in the church of which he was a lifelong member. Those things were mentioned in his funeral by way of eulogy, but the vast majority of the funeral was about his character. And that is what made him great. He may have appeared to have been ordinary in the eyes of most of the world, but his simple, loving gestures positively influenced all around him and made him a great person. The more I think about it, the more I realize there are so many people in this world who appear ordinary, but who are actually some of the greatest among us.