Remembering His Greatness
Several weeks ago Linda McQuinn Carlblom had a great post about praying with children (you can find it here). One of the things that really resonated with me about it was the idea that we should follow up with our children and see how God is working in their lives through prayer. It is often easy to forget the answered prayers and focus on the current list of requests. So how do we avoid this? How can we use all those answered prayers to strengthen our faith and the faith of those around us? We can do it by remembering His greatness!
In the book of Joshua we hear the story of Joshua and the Israelites crossing the Jordan river. In order to facilitate their crossing, God stops the water and affords the Israelites safe passage across. Once they completed their trip, He asks them to take twelve rocks from the river bed and carry them to their camp. Joshua 4:6-7 “In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
Not only did this pile of stones serve as a reminder of God’s greatness to those who crossed the Jordan that day, but also to the generations that followed who could still see this testament standing. It is the same for us today, by sharing the stories about how God is working in our lives we can strengthen the faith of those around us. With that being said, I would like to share a personal story of my own as a testament to His greatness.
When my second daughter turned one I wanted to give her a book that would show her how talented, special and uniquely created by God she was. Not finding this book in stores, I wrote my first draft of what would become my book Perfect You. On the same day that I gave her this book and celebrated her birth, we found out we were pregnant with our third child. As my due date grew closer I was filled with anxiety wondering how I could continue my part time job as an engineer while having 3 little girls at home. Could we afford to have me work? Could we afford to have me stay home? Did I want to stay home? I prayed for guidance through out. I began sending out copies of my manuscript out to publishers feeling that this was a direction I should be heading. I also started my blog, the little hearts project, to encourage families to serve together as this is something else that I felt He wanted me to do. On my oldest daughters fourth birthday, while five months pregnant, I was called into my bosses office and was laid off. The day before I was contacted by a publisher who was going to publish Perfect You.
I could never have imagined this turn of events, which is why I was so glad that it was Him in control and not me. My separation from that company was wonderful and I ended up consoling them in the end! Being laid off allowed me the financial flexibility to be home with my girls and get things underway with my book. All these circumstances came together in a way only He could have orchestrated.
Do you have a pile of rocks? A Perfect You? A reminder of His greatness? I encourage you to find yours so when those troubled times come, you can always have a way to remember that He is great!
Love this post, Holly. And thanks for the plug! Your idea of remembering and the pile of rocks reminds me of a Thanksgiving tradition I started with my family a few years ago. I went to a rock store (the kind that provides gravel and rocks for landscaping) and bought as many 2-4″ smooth river rocks as the number of people I was having for Thanksgiving dinner. I introduced the tradition by reminding my family of the Bible story you mentioned and how other places in the Bible talk of people building memorials to God when they were thankful. I suggested we each write something on a rock that we were thankful for, or some way we’d seen God work in our lives that year. Each family was invited to take their rocks home to start their own memorial–in a corner of their office, in the back yard, wherever they saw fit. Each year we write on another stone and add it to our memorials of God’s faithfulness to us. It’s a nice visual reminder when things look bleak.
Thanks again for a terrific post!