Azalea Trees and Tea Rooms

Walking through a field of Dandelions, I am caught off guard by their intrensic beauty and delicateness.  Afterall, aren’t they just weeds — probably most believe that is all the are really?  However, not today…today I see so much more!

How beautiful they all seem growing side-by-side in a field of overgrown grass!  There lovely colors of white and yellow peeking up through the blades of emerald, as if to shout, “Look at me…look at me!”  As I quickly stoop low to pluck them out of the place they are so firmly planted, some wisk off into the wind — I’m caught off guard by how fragile they seem.  So then, ever more gently and with great care, I gather them into my fist — admire all that they are and seem — then my heart is reminded of people…the overlooked ones…the fragile ones…those who are frequently mowed down without a second thought or glance.

Many of us feel that way from time-to-time; don’t we?!  Oh, that girl who has looked in the mirror and wondered, “Will anyone every notice me…love me…cherish me?”  The one who feels she is pushing up between the cracks of sidewalk — feeling stepped on — crushed.  It certainly crushes the spirit to feel so unobserved by others!

I think many of us feel like that Dandelion trying to desperately to be noticed and picked like a Daisy or a Rose.  We all want to feel valued and loved and looked for in life.  I know I do!

I am reminded of Jesus’ Words in Matthew — Words of comfort and love:

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers; most of which are never even seen; don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” (Matthew 6:30-34 MSG) (emphasis mine)

I am so thankful that He cares so tenderly for me!  I am not…you are not a weed that God has overlooked.  He sees you —- He sees you pushing up through the cracks!  He understand your struggles and your fears.  He will see to it that if you “steep your life in Him” that you won’t miss out.

This life of ours is very short, compared to eternity.  Before you are plucked out of the earth, please surrender your life to Jesus!  He died on Calvary…shed His Blood to Redeem you — He will forgive your every sin and save you!  You are worth so very much for Him to Redeem your soul for eternity.  Steep your life in Him!!

Christmas whispers of home — we all long for those familiar sounds and smells and love.  I received a text message today from a dear friend of mine, April.  She sent me a picture of their Christmas Tree — all decorated and ready for the celebration to come!

April shared that she and her family went out to the forest and brought that tree home…I’m sure the  smell of pine and trail left of pine needles was a welcome grace to her.  You see, they used to live here in Florida — missionaries to this hot, tropical paradise — but April never really acclimated to Florida.  She absolutely hated the heat — hated the lack of season changes — missed her home up north.  Oh, she served faithfully here — jumping in and being and loving and “suffering” for the Lord…smile!  However, this was never home for her and now they have returned to the Land of Winter!

All of this made me homesick for my own “northern country” of Virginia.  My heart began longing for the cold weather, the smell of fresh pine needles, hot chocloate, and family.  I wonder, if like April, if I were allowed to go home, would I be more content — happier — at peace, than I am here in Sunshiney Florida??  Maybe, but probably not!

I am homesick for another place — my real Home, Heaven!  I can almost smell the aroma of peace and love and wholeness that Heaven promises.  My mind wanders a little and I tiptoe into the “I wonders!”  Will there be the scent of pine needles, hot chocolate, Cinamon, or even Nutmeg?  I remember hearing a story on a Gaither video about a little child that asked her Daddy, “Will my puppy be in Heaven?”  The father wasn’t quite sure how to answer such a question and so he said, “Honey, you imagine Heaven the best that it can be and I promise it will be so much more!”  What a wise and discerning answer to offer that child, as he didn’t promise what he could not know, yet afforded HOPE!  No, I’m sure Heaven will not have these things of human wont, but it does offer us something far better.

What will there be?  Jesus — there will be Jesus!  His glory will illuminate this heavenly Home.  Oh, Scripture tells us a bit of Heaven’s glory — streets of gold, the crystal sea, and so much more that we cannot even image.  In fact, John told us this in Revelation:

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.
(Revelation 22:1-5 NASB)

Oh, that will be glory!  As long as I sojourn here on this ole’ earth, my heart will long for that Heavenly place, but I’m so thankful that God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereign love, allowed April and me the smell of fresh pine needles, snow, hot chocolate, and most of all love and relationship with kindred spirits.  Merry Christmas, April!

I don’t know about you, but the pressure and rush of the holidays leaves me feeling a bit depleted and often inadequate. I allow myself to get caught up in what Ms. So-and-So is doing…her beautiful decorations, her picture-perfect meals, and her charming family photographs. I see them all and I tell myself that I cannot compare or measure up to Ms. So-and-So!

Frankly, social media does not help with these feelings of inadequacy and self-condemnation.  You know what I’m talking about!  Ms. So-and-So is on all the current social media sights posting her sublime life for everyone to see.  (I’ve been guilty of this myself!)    Wanting to seem like we have it all together with our pefect children and adoring husbands is quite the temptation.  Honestly, who wants to post pictures of dirty floors, a sink full of dishes, the kids bickering over the last piece of fruit, or the perpetually late husband coming in the door two hours after he was due home??  I’ll raise my hand first…not me!

How do we overcome this need to impress and compete with Ms. So-and-So?  How do we live authentically among the mess and noise and chaos that constantly presses in on us?  How do we overcome that staggering, self-imposed obligation to please?

Well, first we have to understand who we are trying to please!  Who am I trying to impress and why?  I posit that it is not the Lord, but those millions of people on social media, who may or may not know me.  Why do I do this to myself?  Probably because I want to be liked, thought well of, and respected.  Oh, the conviction I feel for trying to set myself up on the pedestal of popularity!

I sought the Lord — I asked Him to help me change this desire to please others and not Him.  He swiftly turned me back to His Word…chastising, correcting, and then restoring me to Himself.

The Apostle Paul challenges me to be an imitator of him, just as he also is of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 11:1 NASB)    Over in Ephesians, Paul exhorts: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 NASB)  A “fragrant aroma” to the Lord.  Oh, yes, please Lord!  Help me to set aside myself so that my life can be an offering and a sacrifice to You as a fragrant aroma.

Remember this:  Ms. So-and-So is trying to please self and the unknown  masses herself.  Ask God how you can encourage her to be still and allow her life to be fragrant to Him.  I encourage you also, beloved…don’t get so caught up in the aromas of Gingerbread Houses and Hot Apple Cider that you have lost who you are in Christ Jesus.  Make your home this Christmas season warm with love…let the Gingerbread and Apple Cider be a beautiful reminder that you are His…your family is His…that is a fragrant aroma to Him!

It’s so easy to go along not realizing the danger you are in or about to face.  Often life will give us subtle warning signs…other times there are glaring warnings…DO NOT ENTER, DANGER, or DO NOT GO BEYOND THIS BARRIER.  Those are the easier ones to avoid, but what of the ones we never saw coming?

When I lived in Virginia there were times I had to drive to work or the store after a hard snow or ice storm.  I would go slowly and keep a good distance between my car and those around me.   However, there was a time or two that I would hit a patch of ice — you really could not even see it — your car would slide — it really wasn’t that difficult to panic and over correct.  Well, usually the only place you would wind up then is in the ditch!  I tried very hard to anticipate the thin patches of ice, but there were times it would sneak up on me and catch me off guard.

Life is that way, too!  We putz along taking care of the endless details that need our attention.  There are bills to pay, kids to feed, letters to answer, laundry to wash, and all of the other busy-ness of the day-to-day grind.  I don’t know about you, but I can get so caught up in all there is to get done in the time allotted me that I will not pay attention to the catastrophe I am about to encounter.  Before I know it…I’m flat on my face and stunned by the impact!  I cry out to the Lord, “How did I miss it?  How did I not see this coming directly toward me??”

I am learning to prepare for these thin patches of ice by surrendering my busy-ness to Him.  I’m not much unlike dear Martha running around with all the preparations of putting supper on the table and not realizing the importance of sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to Him.

Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42 NASB)

When I am distracted with all that is going on around me and not keeping my eyes on Him, I’m bound to hit those thin patches of ice…I’m bound to be planted on my face…I’m bound to find myself grumbling as Martha did about Mary.  It is imperative that I not distract myself with busy-ness — I must be like Mary and choose the good part…Jesus said, “[It] shall not be taken away.”

Yes, there will still be times that things catch me off guard and throw me for a loop!  However, when my focus is on Him, those times will be less traumatic…there will certainly be a lot less time in the ditch!

My prayer for you during this season of busy-ness is that you will take time to be still and meditate on Him.

Along about this time of year — when joy and goodwill exude from the masses…shopping carts are filled, Christmas cards are written, Menus are planned, Christmas Trees are dressed in their finest, and packages wrapped with love are placed under them — my heart “catches.”

Oh, I do get lost in the magic of Christmas — I adore the reasons we celebrate in the first place ~Jesus~ and I love to watch my son get caught up in the decorating and lights.  His requests for favorite dishes never escape my notice and well, the glimmer in his eye captures my heart!

However, a tsunami of grief breaks over my soul and a deep longing settles within me.  I became a bit more acutely aware of that grief today when I was messaging with my friend, Shelby, in Virginia.  We were sharing our Thanksgiving plans and the putting up of Christmas Trees — admittedly what is supposed to be a joyful conversation — but for both of us it turned into tears.

For Shelby and me, our parents have passed away.  We reminisced on how our Momma’s would put into our stocking an Orange, an Apple, some Walnuts, and for me a big Candy Cane….there were other little things, but that’s what Shelby and I have in common…two Virginia girls whose Momma’s loved a similar way.  The specialness of what was is now gone and we are grown and we have our own children and grandchildren to share all that love with during this Season of rejoicing over family.

How, though, do we package the grief — the loss?  As the tears flood in, I must confess that I haven’t quite figured that part out.  God sewed into my life such sweet and kindred relationship with my parents — a tenderness not found in another soul or relationship.  He wove a lifetime of memories and experiences that cannot be replaced — mimicked, yes — not replaced.  Parents are afforded a unique relationship with their children — it is honestly irreplaceable.

Shelby said, “Oh, I didn’t mean to make you cry!”  Oh, she didn’t make me cry at all  — the truth is that I was on the precipice of tears for days.  She only identified with my soul — God allows people to do that — so we have Christ-like relationships in good friends…sisters — we reflected what was in our hearts —- grief, joy, and Jesus!

I think we can both say, with the same assurance of Job:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21 NASB)

It’s not easy to say goodbye — its difficult to journey on without those familiar, kindred spirits when the aromas and sounds and laughter invade the home — but we must — for our good and for His glory!

~Soli Deo Gloria 

 

 

 

I can almost smell my Momma’s Turkey roasting in the oven for Thanksgiving.  I remember Momma putting it in around mid-night on Thanksgiving Eve…it would roast all night, as she would get up every two hours and baste it.  There was really nothing better than waking up on a cold, Thanksgiving morning as it permeated the house.

Momma and Daddy (and all of my grandparents) have passed on and I’m left with just the memory of those days.  I miss the smells and laughter and joy that those days brought to our family.  I miss the coming together and how the love melted away the stresses of the year.  I find my heart longing for what was…playing with cousins…laughing as Pappaw would try and chew our ears off…safety.

Our President has a tradition each year of symbolically pardoning a Turkey…the Turkey probably was unaware of his fate in the first place…but in a gesture of good-will he is pardoned none-the-less.  He gets to gobble back to his abode and live his worry-free life and hope that next year he will be as fortunate.  How ridiculous, right??

Well, it could be considered ridiculous to pardon a Turkey — save him from the roaster — give him a second chance!  However, as I thought more about this gesture, God reminded me of His pardon.

We are all like that Turkey — headed for a certain death and the all consuming, punishing fires of hell.  However, God, in His great goodness, compassion, and mercy through the abundance of His Son’s shed blood on Calvary pardoned us!  To the glory of God!  Scripture tells us in Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.” (Titus 2:11 NASB)  His love for us reaching down into the depths of wretched hearts and saving us!

Unlike that old Tom Turkey, we are pardoned once and for all!

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
(1 Peter 3:18 NASB)

I am grateful and thankful that God loved me so!  My prayer for you, this Thanksgiving season, is that you will surrender everything and make Jesus Lord of your life.  Repent and Believe on Him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I haven’t often thought much about Job’s wife…really…a couple of days ago, if you had asked me, I would have said, “She told him to curse God and die!”  I’ve never given a lot of thought to Job’s response to her or what happens to her in the end…until this morning!

This morning, I was drinking coffee with my 19 year-old son and we began talking of Job.  His great suffering…his well meaning friends…his loss…and, well, his questions to God and God’s responses Job!  But, what of Mrs. Job….?

Sidebar:  We’ll have to call her Mrs. Job from here because God does not share her name with us anywhere in the Book of Job.  I did some research on her name and Rabbinical scholars had some ideas, but it’s not in the Holy Scriptures, so we’ll just give her Mrs. Job for the purpose of this blog!

Well, the first we hear from Mrs. Job is in chapter 2, verse 9:

“Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!'”
(Job 2:9 NASB)

Ok!  Stop the presses!!!  What did she say???  Let me do some modern-day translation here:  “Job, come on now…husband…no one expects you to have integrity now!  Why don’t you just tell God He wins…I give up…and die with your integrity intact!  I wouldn’t blame you…no one would!”

Job sweetly…well, righteously answers her and says, “Lady — quit acting like the other foolish women.  Are you going to take only good things from God and not also accept adversity?”

But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (Job 2:10 NASB)

She does not answer, we hear nothing further, and that is the end of their love story! Well…..not so fast!  A lot happens between chapters 2 through 42…here’s a recap:

• Job has some good friends come by and sit in the ashes with him…
• Job laments to God of his humanness and that he should have never been born…
• Job’s friends start giving Job their two-cent advice…
• Job questions God and this goes on for awhile…
• God answers Job (I just really love this discourse between God and Job)…
• Job confesses, repents, and acknowledges that God is sovereign and that he has spoken of things that were too big to understand for himself…
• God rebukes Job’s friends and this brings us to the end Chapter 42!

The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. (Job 42:10-12 NASB)

Wait a minute, though!  I don’t want you to miss the best part because you think you know or understand what God did in the last chapter.  Something very important happens to Job’s wife, too:

He had seven sons and three daughters.  He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. (Job 42:13-15 NASB)

God restored everything to Job…fields, donkeys, money, servants —- but he gave anew to Job and Mrs. Job sevens sons and three daughters.  Mrs. Job was restored too!  She didn’t just exit left stage, after being rebuked by her husband…no!

What I have always failed to see is that Mrs. Job lost the same amount of everything that Job had lost.  Her children were killed, grandchildren, livestock, servants, and she is left with a husband sitting in a heap of black ashes talking a bit suicidal…about never being born.

I imagine, as a woman, after that rebuke from her husband, she probably returned to the house that no longer existed and began picking up what was left.  Bring Mrs. Job back forward to the 21-Century — someone runs to tell you that all of your children were killed when a great wind came in and destroy their home and taken their lives.  You run home and it all destroyed….those you love….all dead….you fall to your knees…you bury your face in your hands and cry out the most blood-curdling, deep-throated cry of pain that is felt by all around.  Mrs. Job’s chest felt that it would implode, as she goes from child-to-child —- oh, the memories of their childhood…the laughter on their wedding days…the joy of babies…grandbabies —- now all.gone.

As she swept, it must have run through her mind…”curse God and die women!”  He has taken everything…there is nothing left.  It would be better if my dear husband and I were dead.  Can you not feel this dear woman’s heartache and pain….meanwhile, her husband is still sitting in ashes…despairing…and Mrs. Job is alone.

However, just like Job, Mrs. Job has not been forgotten…she too was given more children from her husband.  God blessed Mrs. Job again, as much as blessed Job.  Her heart and her grief and her fear did not go unnoticed by Jehovah God…not one minute.  God understood her heart — her fear.  Wait patiently my child….wait and see what I am about to perform!  God had restored a faithful man and his faithful wife!

There are many other things we can learn about Job’s wife….Mrs. Job….but I’m thankful God showed me her value….value like not leaving Job when the going gets tough, not blaming Job…value in her stick-to-itiveness and persistence.

The Book of Job end beautifully:

After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, an old man and full of days.
(Job 42:16-17 NASB)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We live life and we love…we love deeply.

I loved my Grandma Keen and everything about her.  I loved the way she laughed, with her hands to her mouth, giggling about what tickled her soul.  I loved the way she would sip her saccharin-sweetened coffee and enjoy a piece of toast with it.  I remember sitting at her kitchen table, with my own coffee and piece of toast —- she would pour the last gulps of coffee into a saucer and dip the toast — I would do the same…thinking I was such a big girl to sip coffee and dip toast.  Even today, when I sip my morning coffee —no saccharin, but Stevia — I remember back to those summer mornings and I feel so blessed to have known that precious woman.

I loved my Daddy…a man who chose to adopt me and make me his own.  I remember how proud I was when he wore his police uniform…wondering if anyone else’s Daddy was a giant like mine.  I can still smell the aroma of Christmas breakfast that he would cook us each year — oh, how he loved Christmas.  I cannot but think of that giant of a man, whose heart was even bigger, when we decorate the Christmas Tree and enjoy Christmas morning breakfast.  I remember his sheltering arms when I wept over my Grandma dying or my childhood friend dying.  He loved me and those memories are profound to me.

I loved my Momma!  Certainly the hardest goodbye I’ve ever had to whisper through cascades of grief and questions and regret.  Regret that I did not try harder to understand her.  She was so fragile and yet so strong — much like the Live Oaks that line the streets of my now home, Sanford.  When I am overwhelmed and yet survive the hurt, I think of her and I’m grateful that some of her got left in me.

I’ve stood at two graves of young friends questioning the short length of their paths.  I’ve stood also at the foot of friends who lived long and had much to leave to the world in years and family and experience.

God created us for relationship!  He gave us fathers and mothers and siblings and grandparents and friends and love so that our journey wouldn’t be so long or laborious.  He gave us moments of laughter and the gift of grief and tears.

The Bible says that “the steps of a man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way.  (Psalms 37:23 NASB)  So then, grief is a gift because it means we loved someone and we walked with them in those established steps.  We had the grand privilege of sharing in their delight along the way.  And, as we loosen the earth and lay them gently to await the coming of Christ, we get the privilege to bring others along our journey while we walk in the soul dust of those gone on before…I’m so grateful for that soul dust and the footprints!

 

 

 

 

Each morning when I open up my Facebook©, I am reminded of my social media “memories” from that particular day dating back several years.  While it is not completely unlike looking through an old, family photo album, it is!

When you open an old, family photo album, you are often reminded of sweet memories…sometimes bitter/sweet…but usually sweet.    Therein you may find pictures of your grandparents at a family reunion or old school pictures that make you cringe (in a good way) because your Momma cut all your hair off.  Maybe you will find one of those awkward photos of you and your siblings, posing unknowingly for the laughs the photo would generate 45 years later.

God created within our brain extra folds of brain-matter that would not only store precious memories for us, but that would also filter out the painful memories that remind us of hurt, struggle, hardship, grief, and loss.  We are not equipped to carry such burdens every day for the rest of our lives…they are only meant to be sifted out after healing (and many times repentance).

The Jewish people have a custom that when a loved one passes away, instead of flowers, they place a stone on the headstone as reminder that God is mighty and that they would, for generations, fear (in the Hebrew this word “fear” means reverence) Him.  In the account of the Hebrew children crossing the Jordon in Joshua 4, we find how this came into being:

Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, “Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, and command them, saying, ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.'” So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; and Joshua said to them, “Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. “Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.” Thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the LORD spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging place and put them down there. Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day. For the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the LORD had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed; and when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed before the people. The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle array before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had spoken to them; about 40,000 equipped for war, crossed for battle before the LORD to the desert plains of Jericho. On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered him, just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life. Now the LORD said to Joshua, “Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.” So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.” It came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before. Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. He said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall inform your children, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’ “For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you may fear the LORD your God forever.” (Joshua 4:1-24 NASB)

What is impressed upon me from this account is that God wanted them to remember something good…His provision.  He didn’t ask them to gather these stones so that they could remember their doubt and disobedience while wondering 40 years in the desert…No!  He wants them to remember that He is still with them — He loves them and that He is mighty!

The problem with some of the Facebook© memories that I have found are the ones where I said something that I should have kept to myself…poorly chosen posts to either complain, seek pity, or show unkindness toward someone.  Often, words written in anger or hurt.  When these “show up” for me to revisit, I am once again face-to-face with the same sin I have confessed and God has forgiven.  I am face-to-face with my shame and the depths of sin my heart has at times plunged.  Satan is using Facebook© as a tool to keep me defeated.  He doesn’t want me to remember that God has forgiven me!  As long as he can keep me feeling shame, hurt, bitterness, and angst toward myself or someone else, he can keep me from being an active and useful part of the Body of Christ.

Satan does not want us to walk in the fullness of who we are in Christ Jesus!  Ephesians outlines who we are for us:

• We have redemption through His blood; ( Ephesians 1:7)
• We have obtained an inheritance;  (Ephesians 1:11)
• Were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise;  (Ephesians 1:13)
• He raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and,  (Ephesians 2:6)
• You who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)

What a beautiful picture God has given us, through His Word and the richness of His mercy and grace, of who we are in Christ Jesus!  I am so thankful this picture is now in my photo album to replace years of sin, shame, hurt, heartache, and even grief…a stone of remembrance to His might, redemption, and faithfulness in my life!