Memorials Help Us Keep Perspective…

Have you ever noticed how easily we forget the blessings that have been bestowed upon us? How quickly your day, week, month or year can turn into a series of difficulties or frustrations?

Depending on our personality and upbringing, we either have a tendency to see life as a glass “half-empty” or as a glass “half-full”. Regretfully, the first describes my mode of thinking more often than the later.

 

Perhaps you have heard attitude determines altitude, I have come to embrace the idea that my thought-life and the filter through which I view life – must continually be cleaned and adjusted!

Several years ago, when my children were very young and through a series of  “parenting refinements”, I was introduced to this idea of a memorial box. As the Lord often commanded his people to remember (crossing the river with Joshua, feasts, the Lord’s supper, etc…), so the Lord commands us to remember.

So here is our modest, authentic and rather tacky-looking memorial box…

So what has our family put in it? It has to meet one of two criteria: (1) It reminds us concretely of a situation or circumstance where the Lord uniquely worked in the life of our family or a family member or (2) Provide a significant or pivotal memory in the life of the family member.

Here you see our overflowing ten-year-old memorial box. (We need to store some of the contents to make room for more.)

• Driver’s license plate reminds us an old car we received as a GIFT when we desperately needed a second car.
• The Bible is a memorial to when I became a Christian.
• The flower represents my speaking at Gideon’s conferences, sharing how God has changed my life through a small Gideon Bible.
• Certain pictures remind us of a car accident several years ago, when my three children were all under 5 years old. The van was totaled, but we were all okay!
• The post cards remind us of special trips others made and thought of us.
• Tucked behind the license plate, are the first pair of pants my daughter sewed.

Those are just a few of the items on top!

If you are a parent, you already know how quickly our children can forget the blessing, privileges and provisions you provide as parents – Just like we often do with the Lord’s blessings and provisions… I have found this memorial box is a wonderful concrete, visual reminder that our lives are how they are because of OTHERS – God first, then for my children they see how we as parents provide for them – we provide what they could not provide for themselves and more…

We love taking time to remember! It helps us all keep a sober assessment of ourselves and the trials that come knocking at our door….

Shirley Top 10 List (from 2003)

Posted in honor of a few of my special "sister sojourners" of the last nine years.
I love you, and am thankful for each of you! The laughter, tears, and prayers are special treasures!

10. Your youngest son, who admires Steve Erwin (the crocadile hunter guy), catches a worm in the back yard and says "Mom! Mom! Look! She's a beauty!"

9. You realize you've lost touch with reality when you recite to your daughter why we don't do something. After speaking nonstop, without taking a breath for 15 minutes, - Emily tears up and says truthfully "Mom I can't remember all that."

8. Laundry is an adventure. Silly putty, lego men, chapstick, rolley polleys are all potential pocket dwellers.

7. "Mom! Jack (the family dog) wanted some of my food - so we played follow-the-leader and I led her to her food and she ate!" - life inside the mind of Caleb.

6. Moments of irony... Emily says "Mom I want my hair to be darker like yours", while mom is sitting in a salon chair with aluminum foil in her hair - her highlighting treatment.

5. You know your youngest is growing up too fast when you tell him (Caleb - 3 years old) "No snacks - dinner is almost ready." With advanced reasoning skills he replies, "Mooommm... What if I was the adult and you were the kid... and you wanted a snack and I said no... Would you be happy at me?"

4. Family phrase of the year - "Are you happy at me?"

3. Your daughter is going to be a woman of determination and cleanliness. She is able to dry & fold laundry, empty the dishwasher, clean a bathroom fairly well at the strapping age of 5.

2. "Moooomm... BOYS wipe to the front! GIRLS wipe to the back!" - another glimpse into the mind of Caleb!

1. You try to hold it together as your daughter has, unknowingly to you, opened a beauty palor in the upstairs bathroom. Trying to "fix" the shorter piece of hair that was cut to remove gum 2 months earlier, she cuts her hair back to her scalp. Proudly she announces "Look mom - you know that piece of hair that was a little shorter than the rest of my hair - I fixed it! I cut it all the way to the top of my head!" Being an "in-touch" mother... Three hours later you catch a glimpse at the back of Caleb's head and see a sizeable chunk of hair missing... "EMILY!!!!!!!!!!!"

SMILE!It's an adventure! Learning to enjoy the journey!