Remember

It is during the times we need God the most that we are at our lowest and our faith is dangling before us.  You know the feeling.  When something bad has happened, when you’ve done something bad yourself, when the distance from home just never seems to lessen or when you’ve looked up at that mountain you’ve been climbing and all of a sudden it’s towering over you and you start to believe that maybe you’re just never going to get to the top.  You’re desperate.  You’re hurting.  You’re tired.  You’re giving God an ultimatum, or maybe begging Him to take the hurt away or to somehow undo what has been done.  It is during these times that we need our memories as proof to us that God has and always will be there to carry us. 

In Joshua, Chapter 4, after God stopped the Jordan River from flowing so that Joshua could lead the Isrealites across safely, God commanded Joshua to

“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, ³ and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”  God told Joshua and Joshua told the men that these stones would be a memorial of the time that God had stopped the river from flowing so that they could get across safely. 

God is there for us through our sorrows and pains.  For each of these times we should make some type of memorial so that the next time we are in need of Him and find ourselves feeling alone, we could remember when he's been there.  We don't have to build a memorial, but we can do something in our own way so that that everytime we look at it we can remember that through our darkest times God was there for us and we'll know that He will never leave us.

There's a song called "I Will Sing, I Will Praise" by Don Moen.  When I hear it, I cry.  It reminds me that even when it's hard to have faith I know that He is there.  Here is just the first verse with the chorus:

Lord You seem so far away
A million miles or more it feels today
And though I haven't lost my faith
I must confess right now
That it's hard for me to pray
But I don't know what to say
And I don't know where to start
But as You give the grace
With all that's in my heart

Chorus:
I will sing I will praise
Even in my darkest hour
Through the sorrow and the pain
I will sing I will praise
Lift my hands to honor You
Because Your Word is true
I will sing

I'm starting a project for my kids and I.  I'm going to write a kids book for each time we've gone through a storm and God has sheltered us.  It will serve as our own memorial for the times God has followed through with His promises.  And it'll build and strengthen faith for God in my kids' and my life.

I'm so grateful tonight for all the times my faith has faltered and God has not.

I'll post updates to this in the Mommy Projects section.