How Easy We Forget....

As you will recall, Joshua followed Moses as the leader of the Israelites and many amazing things happened during the time he was a leader — including entering the promised land and conquering m the people there.   In addition, as a young man he was able to witness or at least hear from others about things like the crossing of the Red Sea.  He saw God perform miracle after miracle as did the other folks of his generation.  But after Joshua died we read these words in Judges 2:

After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.

This is particularly a shame because of the words that Moses had given that first generation in Deuteronomy 6:

 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

God knew that something about humanity.  We forget.  So we need to be reminded again and again and again.

As you know, I have a rich heritage.  I have parents who through their lives and their stories have shaped who I am.  We have family stories like the time that our car died and my parents had us pray during family devotions that God would take care of our situation — and the next day we got a call from a former neighbor saying “Hey, I feel like God is nudging me to give you our car.”  Or times when we were out of grocery money (because tithe and supporting missionaries came first, so if there was an emergency, we ate less meat) - -and we prayed about it and the next day a friend from church stopped by with food.  My parents never asked anyone for anything — except God and he always provided.  

So even as an adult sometimes my mom will remind me of one of those times when God took care of us in the past … which means that he’s got us now.  

I don’t want the next generation to forget.  Bart and I have stories in our own family (and this is getting long so I won’t share them) that I remind my kids of.  I’m starting to tell my grandchildren stories about how God took care of me and my family as a kid — and how he took care of their parents when they were kids — which means that God will take care of them.

Have stories of God’s provision, goodness and care?  Let’s do what Moses suggests and “repeat them again and again to our children.”     

Because we don’t want the next generation to be the one that forgets.