Memory Keeper

I am a memory keeper. Whether it be by way of taking a gazillion pictures of every holiday, every big event, everyday occasions of my grandbabies, children and let us not forget about our vacation adventures, or collecting pieces of furniture or knick-knacks that I've inherited from dear loved ones. If my mom wants a family heirloom to be kept safe through the years, she gives it to me. She knows I'll keep it safe and sound. I love preserving pieces of our families past.

Then there are the many "memory boxes" I have stored in my attic and on the top shelf of my closest. Inside, a smorgasbord of items I've held onto through the years to provoke memories, that on their own, would have simply been forgotten, because Lord knows this girl has NO memory. My short term is mediocre at best, and the long term is almost non-existent.

I'm always so impressed when people can snap off their children's birth stats quicker than a color commentator can fill a lull with statistics and background info on a game or player. "Yeah, Steve, my daughter was born on a Tuesday. It was in October of 1990. She was 7lbs 10oz and 18 inches long at 3:54 in the afternoon. I believe the Dodgers were playing that day. It was sunny and the bases were loaded. George W. Bush was the president and economy was good."

NOT ME! I'm one of those moms who has to go through all of their children's names, plus my own sibling's names before I get to the child's actual name. I only have two boys, so you'd think it would be easier to get their names right on the first try, compared to my 4 girls, SaJeBeLuLu, but I be doggone if I still don't call them by their brother's name or even my brother's name! (I come from a long line of forgetful mommas. I thought my name was ShuStaChristy, until I learned to write it. ((Shelly, Stacey, Christy)) )

Furthermore, I'm a huge note taker in church. If not, every single fascinating fact that the preacher regaled us with would be gone by lunch! What was it they use to teach us in school to help us remember facts for a test? Write it, Read it, Say it out loud. Well, I don't do the saying out loud part, unless I'm sharing it with someone, but the writing it and then later rereading it is a HUGE help!! The Lord can still bring thoughts from sermons I heard over 15 years ago, to my mind when He needs to .

I promise there's a point to all of this. I've written out ALLLLLL of these oh-so interesting facts simply to tell you that it made me very happy today, when I read about how the Lord told Moses and Aaron to save a jar full of manna, as a visual reminder to future generations, so they'd know what on earth their parents or grandparents were talking about when the subject of manna was brought up again.

Let's look at that real quick...

"This is what the Lord has commanded? 'Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt." And Moses said to Aaron: 'Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations." Exodus 16: 32-33 ESV

Can we just talk about all of the things I found so fascinating about these two little verses? First off, I find it interesting that the very "bread" that God would not allow to be kept over night or it would grow worms and rot, somehow, through his amazing power, was allowed to exist for hundreds of years without ever being ruined. ("Ruint" as my husband says and "rurnt" as my momma says.)

Second, I love that God had them keep the exact amount that He had told them to gather per person. One omer per person. If they tried to gather more, when they got back to the house, err... tent, it was exactly one omer. If they hadn't gotten quite enough (maybe they had to go to the bathroom really bad and just grabbed what they could) when they got home, it was exactly an omer. (vs 17 & 18)

But more than anything, I love that God knew these things would eventually be forgotten. As miraculous and amazing as this everyday miracle of God was, it would eventually be turned into a fable or a "seems like my granny once told me" kind of story. So for this forgetful gal, that resinated strongly with me.

God knows that we humans, in general, are just a forgetful bunch of cells. Some have it better than others, but mostly we eventually forget. Hence the Ebenezers that the Lord commanded his children to set up.

"Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." 1 Samuel 7:12

The word Ebenezer literally means "stone of help." Anytime God brought them through a miraculous victory, He commanded them to set up a pile of stones as a memorial of that victory... so that future generations would have visual reminders that their Creator is very real, and victorious in power! Sometimes our Bible heroes weren't even commanded to do it, but they chose to, so there would always be a reminder that something amazing happened in that spot. It wasn't like it is today, where they could just take a selfie at the location and record it for all to see on social media like... hashtag God is awesome; #godisawesome, #victoryovertheegyptians #wrestledwithgodandwonhere #ouchmyhiphurts #totallyworthit

Many years ago the Lord led me to make an "Ebenezer" for my coffee table. I used a plain brown stone plate that I wrote the verse out on, then I placed a pile of smooth stones on the plate. Anytime the Lord brought us through a trial or gave us victory over a personal battle, I'd write a one or two word summary of the win on a stone, so that we could always look back and remember. It's no longer on my coffee table, but in one of those memory boxes in the attic.

With New Years just recently passing, looking back has been on my mind a lot. I ran across a blog post that summed up the importance of looking back, perfectly. The writer said...

"We’d be remiss if we looked ahead without looking back. And I don’t just mean looking back at what we ate, where we traveled, or what we watched (though those aren’t bad things to recall). I mean looking back with intention on the state of our heart—the good, the bad, and the ugly—in 2018, as a means of looking ahead to lasting transformation in 2019. This kind of remembering with intention is actually an ancient spiritual practice. Throughout Scripture, the Israelites were called to continually recall what God had done for them and where they had fallen short in loving and obeying him, in order that their worship of and commitment to him as Lord and King would be deepened. Their practice wasn’t a detached review; during festivals and observances ordained by God they recounted specific events in their history with celebration or repentance. The regular times of looking back were meant to transform them and keep them on track and faithful to God moving forward."

Though the Lord doesn't want us to live in our past and he definitely doesn't want our past sins to become trophies, He most definitely has shown us many times and in many ways the importance of looking back.

To see where He's brought us from.

To remember what we use to be.

To acknowledge the areas we're still lacking in.

This way we can move forward with a better understanding of where we need to go from here and which areas of our heart we need to focus on cleaning up.

I'm so glad that God gets me and encourages us forgetful humans to document and keep important memories of one of our most precious gifts ever given, the gift of life here on this earth. I'm also stoked that it's super easy for us to document our human experiences. With the whole digital revolution, there's a camera or digital notepad at our fingertips. Be sure to take a spiritual inventory of the last week, the last month and the last year. Can you see God's handy work weaving its will through your life? If yes, Praise Him. If no, maybe you need to snuggle up a little closer to Him this week, month and year.

And as I remind my now adult children all the time be sure to TAKE PICTURES OF EVERYTHING because one day you'll forget! :D

#Mindset