Reminders to Remember

I think the older you get the more you have to remember and the easier it is to forget.  When my wife asks me to help her remember something, I normally laugh to myself because I know there is no way I’m going to remember. Anything specific I want to really remember must be written down on the calendar in my phone… And then I have to set a reminder to remind me to remember.  So, haircut next tuesday, alarm set to go off one day before and then again two hours before.

On the other hand, there are things I always remember to do, like eat. I love to eat… like really, really love to eat. Now, you might say, “it’s easy not to forget to eat since you get hungry, it’s like an internal alarm” and maybe that’s your situation, but as for me and probably a lot of other people; at least I hope I’m not the only one. I eat because food is just good.  It’s part of my day, I make time for it, I put thought into what I want to eat.

Throughout the Bible God tells us to remember what He says. To remember His commandments, His love, His grace, His promises, and His power. But what seems to happen is, instead of remembering on a daily basis, they become reminders on Sunday morning and then we say, “oh right, I should do that”.  Deuteronomy 11 shows how serious God is about us remembering.

18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

So, He wants us to hide His words in our hearts, teach them to our children, talk about them at home (not just church), while we are driving down the road, before we go to bed, and when we wake up.  God doesn’t want to be someone you know about but someone who is a part of the family and part of your everyday activities, from morning until night.

When the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River into Canaan, God told them to build a memorial with stones in Joshua 4…

5And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?‘ 7then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

There is power in remembering the testimony.  It was there for future generations so that when their children asked what the pile of stones were, they could explain what God had done in their lives.  It’s so important that we remember our testimony.  How soon have we forgotten that God took someone unworthy and made us worthy to be loved, that by His grace He saved a soul bound for destruction, and gave new life filled with a divine purpose to bring Him glory.  My wife has began writing verses that speak to her on the mirror so she can remember and be thinking about them throughout the day.  She also wrote, on the same mirror, all the “big things” God has done in our lives so that we can remember how He’s blessed us and has come through for us.  It’s like a memorial.

We should do all we can to remember the goodness and grace of God.  Write it in a journal, talk about it with your spouse and children, let your co-workers know about them, or maybe even write it on your mirror in the bathroom!  Whatever you have to do, remember to REMEMBER.