Legacy of Memory

Memories are such a wonderful thing. Right?  Right!? Okay, memories can be such a wonderful thing.  Or memories are not such a wonderful thing. What comes to mind when you think of a memory?  Do you think of something wonderful or something so painful that you hurry to think of something else?  Come on! You can be honest with yourself as you read this.

Let's explore this a little bit more.  Memory as described by Webster's,"the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences."
So memory is what you make of it. Right?  Mental capacity or faculty is a necessity.  The ability to grasp or hold the memory is important. So is the retaining or reviving it.  The it could be any of the facts, events, impressions, smells, previous experiences, sounds, etc.   There is a lot to the memory thing isn't there? What helps you remember?  Is it a random thought, or specific concentrated effort to bring back something that was experienced or not? 

Now here comes the hard part to this little post.  What do you remember as one of the most significant things that has ever happened to you in a positive way?  If you are like me, there are quite a few of them, but for the sake of this discussion, which one is the most significant to you?  Knowing my twist to the rest of my predictable blog posts, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it was the first time you encountered God on a personal one-on-one.  Remember?  I can tell you He does. He put you in a place where you had only one of two options.  Listen to Him or reject Him.  I've heard people say that God called them by name and rocked them to their knees. I've also heard people say that He pursued them and the first couple of times they didn't respond and so Jesus went out of their lives until He came back.  There is no judgement here from me about that one.  That's their story and they can stick  with it.  I would think that Jesus was there the entire time.

So what was it to you.?  Where were you and what were you going through?  Did He pick you up and comfort you from a broken sinful condition?  Did you have someone with you or were you all alone?  What did it feel like having the burden of sin taken from you?  What a relief knowing that it wasn't up to me to do all, be all.  Was that you too?  Did you have a Bible with you or did you cry out for Him with all your soul and let the God moment bring you to His Grace?    Remember.  The memory after that moment of Grace should be one of great joy.  It should be.

Paul and Timothy had it so right in  Philippians 1:1-11,  Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ,  To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:  I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of  grace.  For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. 
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense til the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. 

They were remembering.  They were joyful in those memories.  Isn't it the same for us?  Didn't you have fellow bondservants that mentored and prayed for you as a new believer?  My prayer to you is that you had someone or somebodies that helped you, but unfortunately there are some that we don't help guide along for whatever reason.  We need to make absolutely sure we build wonderful memories of those that come to the Lord in faith. They need our Love given from the Father and shared through the Holy Spirit.  We must do this. 

To throw the curve now.  One of my best memories is the day, I saw my wife for the first time and she caused me to fall totally out of my mind head over heels for her.  The next are those of watching each of our children being born, and baptized later in Christ.  So my prayer for you is to build those memories and talk about them as they are your legacy for living a life for the Savior.