DO IT AGAIN, LORD

My granddaughter has an incredible memory!  I am amazed at how keen it is even for a 5 year old.

Every Christmas I put up things around our house so that I can make room for our Christmas decorations.  In our hall bathroom, I have 3 little monkeys which sit on the back of the commode.  "See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil".  I replaced them during the holidays with some beach Santas and then when Christmas was over, I put them back.  As soon as she saw them, she said quite distressed,

"Mimi!!  You did it wrong."

 I had no clue what she was talking about.  When I went to see, she was pointing to the monkeys.

 "This is NOT right, " she exclaimed.

I was still in the dark.  When I questioned her further, she explained that they were not in the right order.  Not that I had them in any particular order to start with, BUT...she remembered how they had been, and expected them to be put back the way they went!  Are you kidding me?  I have to make pictures of most things in the house BEFORE I remove them, so I can look at the pictures after Christmas to remember where it went.  Ah to have the memory of a child! 

Yes, I can definitely tell as I get older that my memory is diminishing.  My husband says it is because we have so much more to dig through to find what we are looking for in our minds.  Sounds good to me.  Still, I hate that I cannot retain things like I used to, especially what I read. 

I can read things today and think "Oh, I want to remember that.  That is SO good."  And then, it's gone.  Depressing for sure.

I was reading a devotional this morning about trusting God for BIG things.  I remember once reading a book in which it talked about praying BIG, HAIRY, AUDACIOUS prayers for our kids.  I began to look through my collection of books, hoping I'd remember WHICH book I'd read it in so I could read the rest of what went along with that.  As I began to peruse my collection, I saw books I did not remember reading, yet upon opening them, saw where I'd underlined things in them.  Yet I do not remember a thing about them!! 

Our memory regarding God is a lot like that, too.  He does things for us again and again, yet the next time we need Hiim, we doubt that He can do it.  We trust Him with one situation, but the very next situation which arises, finds us wavering in our faith that He will come through for us.  How quickly we forget His faithfulness to us. 

Psalm 143: 5 says "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works.."  God puts a lot of value on remembering for when we remember what He has done, it increases our faith in what He can and will do in the future.  When we remember the feats of Elijah, we are reminded that the same God who answered Elijah's prayer will answer ours IF we trust God like Elijah did. 

"There is no reason why we should not ask for large things and without doubt we shall get large things if we ask in faith and have the courage to wait with patient perseverance upon Him, meantime doing those things whihc lie within our power to do. 

We cannot create the wind or set it in motion, but we can set our sails to catch it when it comes; we cannot make the electricity, but we can stretch the wire along which it is to run and do its work; we cannot in a word, control the Spirit, but we can so place ourselves before the Lord and so do those things He has bidden us to do, that we will come under the influence and power of His mighty breath."  Streams in the Desert

Of all the things we must retain in our memory, let us not forget the things God has done for us, His great faithfulness, His abiding love, His untold forgiveness and grace.  For it is in the remembering that we are strengthened for the journey still ahead.