Remembering

I am very convinced that the Lord wants us to rely on our memories much more than we do. Remember the altars in the Old Testament? It seems like all the great fathers of faith were forever building an altar to remind them of the works of the Lord. I'm sure Noah had a pretty big to-do list when he got off that ark, but what did he do first? Built an altar, to thank and praise God.

There's been several posts lately around the blogosphere about writing and recording the everyday struggles, failures and rough spots of life. Moms are feeling like they're only recording the happy days and making it sound like they're super when they don't really feel like it. I've done some thinking about this and this is my personal conclusion:

My blog is simply my on line journal of family events that I want to record for my family. My readership is small and I'm OK with that. I have a few friends and some out of town family (that would be all of my family) and a very few anonymous readers and that's OK too.
I'm blogging because I like to write, I like to reflect and at the end of the year I'm going to have my whole blog bound as a big scrapbook! Voila, no cutting, no pasting, no scrapbook supplies! I digress...

NOW, as far as remembering, I don't want to take pictures of all the struggles I have with my teens, my laundry piles, my temper tantrums, my laziness, my messy house, my arguments, hurt feelings and a hundred other things that we as moms/wives/friends go through every day! I want to move through those things and not give Satan a foothold when he knows how quickly I get my feelings hurt (that happened this week) or I lose my temper (that happened several times this week).

No one reading my blog should have any reason to think that these things don't happen on a regular basis. Hello! I'm married, have four kids, including two teens, I am between seasons in my life,I am overweight, our family is in ministry, my husband is employed by a church, and I put gas in my car! Yikes!

So, all this to say, for me, my blog is a record of the things I want to remember. I want to deal with the rough spots in my home, not on the world wide web. That's not to say I won't make a special entry when my grandmother passes away, but it will be because I want to make sure that her life is celebrated here on earth as she goes to Heaven!

Just as I hope my parents remember the good times and somehow forget the awful times raising me, I want to remember the times that we were being the family that God created us to be. I want my kids to be able to think on that too, I'll make sure they remember their teen years as they raise their own!

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.

20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:19-23