Remember When...
My boys love a good story, particularly ones about our childhood or married life before they were born. Some of their favorites include me biting myself in an attempt to blame my younger sister, or how we would sterilize our oldest's pacifier if it should fall to the ground but the youngest boy barely got a wipe off when it graced the floor in Target.
Story telling is one of the world's oldest & most beloved crafts.
Stories can spur us into action, inspire emotion, and trigger memories of times past. They can be a teaching tool. Or they can bridge the gap between time and culture. In fact, God uses real life stories for all those reasons and more. He specifically wove them into the Bible to remind us of who He is & what He does & that we are to share them with our children and our children's children.
You shall tell your son on that day, saying, "It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt." And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth...
Exodus 13:8-9a
Throughout the Old Testament, God reminds His people to remember what He has done. He was very specific in how they were to remember. One of my favorites, is His command to build an alter with stones of remembrance. Every time they passed by it they could tell their children the stories of victory and provision.
We adopted the idea in our home. We have a small pile of stones on our dinning room table. Each stone is inscribed with a location and dates of each place that we have lived. I can roll them around in my hands while I tell the boys stories. Some rocks hold sad memories, others hilarious adventures; all of them declare God's goodness.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this month, we have purposed in our hearts to acknowledge the character of God in our blessings. While we pass these stones around the dinner table, sharing memories, we give thanks for how God showed up in each story. We remember So That God gets the glory and our children know truth.
You don't have to have a pile of rocks to remember, but I encourage you to still tell those stories as you practice thankfulness this season. Remember the happy times, the difficult moments, when you were lacking or when you were full to the brim. But more than anything else, remember the Lord; who He is and what He has done.
