Mark Where You've Been. Stand Firm Where You Are. Trust Him to Keep Going!

It’s interesting to go back through old photographs. You see things from a different perspective and the events and moments of the past hold clearer meaning. You are able, with the benefit of time to carefully look over the environments you once occupied, to pick out details you had never noticed before.

I love that the Lord knows this about us. He knows that sometimes we don’t get the full picture the first time around, so He encourages us to recall things. At pivotal moments and sites in the history of His people, they placed memorial stones to help their generations to remember how far He had brought them. As the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land that had taken so long and cost so much to reach, He commanded them to take stones from the “very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly” and erect a memorial.

Not to memorialize the priests. Not to venerate their obedience. Not to exalt a nation that had conquered an obstacle. But to remind them that God, who had called them out, made a promise to them, and given them seemingly impossible tasks to perform, was faithful to His word. When they followed His direction, when they did the things that made no sense to anyone else, when they stepped out into waters far too deep for them, HE made a way. HE provided the shelter and food to sustain them. HE overcame their obstacles and their enemies. HE allowed them dry ground on which it was possible to stand firm.

Where are those places in your life? Have you set tangible markers that you can look at, hold, and remember Who God has been to you? Do you have those things that you can set before your children and say, “Look at this! Let me tell you the story of when God…”

If not, let me encourage you to find a way to begin noticing and memorializing your milestones as you walk with God. Maybe it’s stones picked up from the places He leads you. Maybe it is photographs of specific moments. Maybe it is journals where you write the stories out. Maybe it is art in your home that represents a significant time or place where He revealed Himself to you. Clothing, knick-knacks, gifts from pivotal people who He has used in your life, even tattoos; ask Him to show you those ways that will be meaningful for you and your children to recall His goodness in your lives.
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As you share the stories, may you gain a clearer understanding of all that He has done for you in those moments that you knew were important, but that reveal the depth and breadth of His care for you the more you look at them. Like turning a finely cut diamond and finding a million different colors reflecting back, may the detailed beauty of the Lord’s hand in your life hold you in captivated awe. May reflecting on His love empower you to stand firm.