Pin This on Me, Too, When I'm Gone

Miss Ella, our fifth child, turned 7 last week, and her birthday usually includes my telling a story. The story is about the two of us, but the focus is Him.

I recall how sick I was while pregnant with Ella. My Crohn's was fighting full force in my body, and I was ravaged with inflamed red sores all over my legs, joint swelling, pain that wouldn't respond to medication, and torturous sleepless nights. I gained a mere 8 lbs., and she weighed six and a half of that.

After Ella was born, things got even worse. I had to use a cane to walk. I lost even more weight (truly, I thought I had cancer), and the joint pain only increased. I wondered if I'd ever walk normally again or know the joy of chasing one of my children around the room.

But God restored me. I remember with such clarity the first time I RAN around our house. I felt more victorious than a gold-medal winner.

Lest you think when I'm sharing God's goodness, when I'm actively remembering, misty-eyed, that all the children are still with wonder and awe, think again. But my telling the stories, recounting the wondrous works of God, isn't dependent on attention spans. I trust God will, in His own way, bring these events to mind and fill their hearts with adoration of Him and His mercies.

My job is to be faithful.

All of our lives are a tapestry of His wondrous works. Do our children know them? Do we even remember them?

Speak of them as naturally as you speak of what you're going to do that day. Remind your children it is sin to forget, and as it did for the Israelites, forgetting  breeds ingratitude and a whole host of other sins.

Don't be discouraged by their lack of appreciation for His works. This will come with time. Consider your stories to be tiny seeds being planted in their hearts that will one day flourish, reminding our children that the LORD God is their God, and His mighty deeds abound in the pages of their lives. By God's grace, they too, will faithfully speak of His wondrous works to their children, and so on and so on.

Edward Payson, the father of Elizabeth Prentiss, who wrote Stepping Heavenward, died four days before his daughter's 9th birthday. At the funeral, pinned to his jacket, per his instructions, were the powerful words:

Remember the words which I spake unto you while I was yet present with you. **


He had the same exhortation engraved on his coffin.

If we died today, what legacy of words would we leave behind for our children? Do they know the Scriptures? The glorious truth of the gospel? Would they quickly recall accounts of His provision and goodness and mercy? Would they have a history of Ebenezers to pass on to their children? Would they be rich in their remembering or desperate amnesiacs?

This Mama knows very well what it is to just get through the basics of the day. But speaking of His mighty works isn't another burden to add to our parenting to-do lists. It is what flows from hearts that are under the influence of His grace, hearts that remember where they would be if they weren't redeemed, hearts that love and know His Word and cling to the faithfulness He displays in Holy Writ and in our daily living.

Remember the words which I spake unto you while I was yet present with you.
His Words.
His mighty works.

Yes, by God's grace, pin this on me, too, when I'm gone.

With love,
Trisha

**coming from Luke 24:44