Remember

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”  Proverbs 3:3

This verse seems to be a charge to continuing doing good in the situations that arise around us.  It is a pointer to keep the best expressions close and to live with them flowing in our lives, to develop them as foundations of who we are. 

But for almost 20 years now, I’ve also read this verse to mean another thing as well.  The Israelites were often in trouble because they forgot the works of God.  They got sidetracked and didn’t keep in view what He had said, what He had done for them, what He had called them to, even the promises He had made.  I realized that remembering was a pretty important element in walking forward well.

I had been cleaning out my closet and came to a jewelry box that held a small silver charm that some cousins in Spain had sent while they were living there.  Fittingly, it was a matador.  And also fittingly, God spoke to me when I looked at it.  “What I call you to do, do boldly.”  I needed that message that day, and I sensed I needed to remember it.

That day began my decision to try to keep in view what God, in His faithfulness and love, was teaching me.  I decided to literally hang it around my neck as the proverb says.  There is not a lot of worth in remembering any good acts that I do, but it is immensely beneficial to remember His care for me, and what He speaks.  So I bought a silver chain, fastened my tiny matador to it, and little by little began to add symbols of the more significant lessons He was teaching me.  Many days this necklace is part of my attire, and any morning I put it on, I am reminded again of how faithful He has been, how much He has taught me, how persistent and patient He has been while I keep leaning in, stumble though I do. 

I am sharing this to encourage you to find some way of collecting the stories of His love and faithfulness to you.  It can be through a pile of stones, through the writing of your stories, or any other way that is meaningful to you.  Better yet if it is something you can share with others. 

We all have events and days and seasons that can knock the wind out of us.  Having something tangible to remember His work in our lives can be a powerful tool, a handhold of strength so we don’t forget what is true.