These stones now will be added to in order to remind each of us in our family that we CAN and SHOULD depend on our faithful Father. "All I have need of His hand will provide. He's always been faithful to me."
Original Post:
As you can see in the picture, our children are growing up...FAST. (This picture is nearly a year old...the boys have changed a lot even in the last year.) Brooke will be going away to college in less than a month now. Blake and Cody are driving now. Dale will be starting high school just a couple of days before Brooke leaves for school. It seems like yesterday they were all babies...oh how well Doug and I remember the days of a booster seat, 2 bulky car seats, and a baby carrier. We have so many stories of their growing up days that I'm sure many of you have heard...probably more than once. Have you heard the story of the 'car fly' or the story of the diaper incident when we thought Blake and Cody were napping or what about Brooke's rendition of the song "I Shall Not Be Moved" when she was two or maybe the story of how Dale sang the "I Know a Song that Gets on Everybody's Nerves" ALL the way to FLORIDA? We never tire of remembering and sharing stories of our children. If you are a parent or a grandparent, I'm sure you are the same.
Many months ago, I started following the blog of a wonderful Christian woman who has a weekly feature called Memorial Box Monday. (The blog is http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/ . You can check out her blog and see her reasoning and thinking behind how she does her Memorial Box.)
Anyway, it got me to thinking. I'm so quick to tell stories about my children and family. I tell my children stories of themselves and our family so that they have those stories to tell their children, but do I purposefully tell them stories of God and His goodness and His love and His faithfulness so that they can experience it and then pass it on to their children in the future? I had to answer...not nearly enough. As a matter of fact, many times I would tell stories or recount the events in our lives and tell the details of the event and completely leave God out of it. Did I do that on purpose? No, but was it still wrong? Yes.
Throughout the Bible, we are instructed to teach our children of the faithfulness of God so that they can and will teach their children. In Joshua 4, the Lord instructed Joshua to use stones as a memorial for what the Lord had done for the Israelites when they had crossed the Jordan. We should in some way be doing something so that we not only remember but pass on stories of God's faithfulness to our kids.
For example, when Cody was in the first grade he fell about 16-18 feet out of a tree when the branch he was standing on broke. He fell into a dry creek bed. Cody had a major compression fracture in his back, and he broke a small bone in his foot near the growth plate. I've told that story many times over the course of his life. I remember using words like..."It's AMAZING that he wasn't hurt worse than that." "It could have been so much worse." Both of those statements are true, but the TRUE TRUTH is that God protected Cody during that fall. God kept Cody from landing on his neck. God gave me the strength and determination to demand that the doctors x-ray Cody's back when they were refusing. God saw us through those days of Cody having to be flat on his back and very still until they could custom make a brace for him. God sent family and friends to minister and care for our family. God saw us through the months of Cody being in a hard-shell brace and wheelchair. Some people may say that God wasn't there or He would have kept Cody from falling. I not only say, but know that God was there and did protect Cody. Now, it is a story of God's faithfulness that we will share with our children and they will share with their children.
With that being said, we all know there are so many stories of times when God has been faithful in our lives AND our human minds tend to forget. So how do we make sure that we have those stories to pass on? There are many ways that different families choose to do this. Our family has discussed this for a long time and have had many ideas.
For now, we are doing a Remembrance Stone Box. We've just started this project. I thought I'd share some pictures with you. We started with a planter box. We collected flat, smooth rocks from a creek. It was fun to try to find rocks with odd shapes and colors.
Brooke painted a scripture on each side of the box.
Then, we took the stones and wrote brief descriptions of times in our family's life when God was faithful. When we can remember the date, we write the date. The stones are reminders. Obviously there is not room for the whole story. These are reminders so that when we see them we remember the story. We only have a few of the rocks with messages on them right now. We're adding to them a little at a time. As we need to, we'll add rocks.
The box sits on our coffee table in our living room. (My friend, Dawn, from church knew someone who used their remembrance stones in this way. Thanks for the idea, Dawn!) So now it serves a dual purpose. If someone is visiting our home, we hope it becomes a conversation piece. After all, we have a box of rocks on our table. This will open up the door for conversations about how good our God is!
So now, when our children (or grandchildren or anyone who comes into our home) ask later what are those rocks for, we'll answer with hearts full of love and thanksgiving as we tell of God's faithfulness!
Do you have a way that your family shares stories of God's faithfulness in your lives? I'd love to hear your ideas!
Blessings,
Cindy
