You’ve seen the kits in the store. The mold kits where you can make lasting impressions of your child’s hands or feet. It is a memory maker where you get to remember how tiny they were at certain stages in their lives. Our kids made these hand impressions last Christmas (with the help of their Nana and Papa). It was one of the sweetest gifts that I have ever received. We put them up in our living room and it is a constant reminder of the presence of my children. It warms my heart to see them there. I think of the time it took and the love they put into it. To hold their hands still long enough to let the plaster set. Then to be patient and let it dry. Then to choose the colors to paint it! It’s priceless. Every time I look at it, I will always remember how much they loved Shawn and I to make those for us.
When you read the Old Testament it is full of God’s works in the lives of the Israelites. They rebel, they are punished and God delivers them. As I did a word search on remember, I found so many scriptures of God trying to remind His people what He did for them. Mostly He tried to remind them of Egypt. The slavery that they were in bondage to and the awesome deliverance that God gave them. He delivered them out of the clasp of Pharaoh’s hand and yet they continued to reject Him.
God gives us all lasting impressions. It is our testimony. It is where He has delivered us from. For me personally, God delivered me from a failing marriage, a bitter past, a life of unfaithfulness, and gut wrenching anxiety. That was my life before. After yielding my life to Christ, my marriage was mended, I was happier (though until recently my bitterness didn’t completely fade), my faithfulness is rooted in my Savior, and my anxiety now rests in Him. Though that may have been the case, my life was still in the bottom of the barrel. Our family was very poor, living on a mere $222 a month that was provided by the state. My husband had lost his job due to a severe car accident and for a year was unable to get a job. We slept on a full mattress on a cement floor in a room at my mom’s house. Even when we were able to get an apartment, we had very little food and with two kids we often wondered what we would eat. I was delivered from my past but still needed to rely on God on a regular basis for my families survival. This was no rags to riches story, no Cinderella here, it was a faith walk.
Now, Shawn has a great and secure job, we have purchased a home, we have a good car, plenty of food and even a couple of pets that have become a part of our family. Sometimes once the bad times are over and our kingdom is having a pretty good day, we forget (like the Israelites) what it was like to have those bad days and Who delivered us. Instead of praying, “Your Kingdom come”, we pray, “Maybe tomorrow”.
In all of the 233 results for the word remember, some were of God remembering His covenant with Abraham, mostly they were of God telling His people to REMEMBER! He had impressed on the hearts of His prophets that the people needed to REMEMBER! Remember where they’d come from. Remember where they’d been. REMEMBER Who brought them through!
God has impressed on our lives a story and our story is part of His. We must tell that story. It doesn’t have to be all scripture and fancy church talk, it just has to be us, telling others what God has done in our lives! REMEMBER! Because once you remember where you’ve been, only then can you grasp where you’re going. God has given you a pressed hand print on your heart, you just have to look at it to be reminded of the love that He put into the gift that He gave.
” These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ” -Deuteronomy 6:6-7
Looking at the picture on the left, who do you think is the oldest? What if I told you that the “oldest” isn’t who you think it is. Something that has always stricken me as odd since I have been a Christian is the matter of “age”. When I was in my 20s, I never really felt like anyone took me seriously, except for four and five year olds. I was at such an in between stage. I was too old to be young, and too young to be old. Then when I became saved, I became aware of a completely different “age”. My “spiritual age”. Apparently your “spiritual age” starts when you are saved. This frustrated me for two reasons, 1) I was already battling being taken seriously because of my physical age, now I had a double battle on my hands; and 2) I wanted so badly to grow spiritually but I felt that it didn’t matter how fast I grew because I would always have the number of years hanging over my head.
