"Mommy, Do You Rememory When...?"
When my kids were little, they would innocently blend newly learned words together. One of my favorites was the word rememory. An example of the correct use of the word “rememory” is, “Mommy, do you rememory when we visited Grandma and Grandpa last summer?” The little made-up word they used to reflect on memories melted my heart.
Remembering always involves something from our past. When my children were small, it felt like time was speeding by so quickly and I just didn’t want to forget one moment. Each day I would write down one brief sentence or comment that I wanted to remember from that day. I have calendars full of small moments, thoughts, and comments from each day in the early years of their lives. Those calendars are a compilation of things I remember with gratitude and joy.
In Philippians 1:3, Paul writes:
I thank my God every time I remember you.
Paul is sitting in prison. He is not actively creating new memories with the people of Philippi. He has an abundance of time on his hands and he is remembering his time with the people of Philippi. And EVERY time he remembers them, he thanks God. Isn’t that just the most beautiful image? Imagine if every time we remembered someone, we thanked God.
There are so many different ways we pray to God and so many different things we pray for. We pray for things in our future like our children’s future spouses. We pray for things in the present like our children’s safety throughout this day. And we pray for things in the past, like the people who have influenced our lives.
Because of our human condition, not all past memories of people in our lives are positive, lovely, and joyful. And I’m certain, not all of Paul’s memories from Philippi were positive. They were building a church together, obviously, there were challenges (check out Euodia and Syntyche in Phil 4:2). But, every time he remembered the people of Philippi, he thanked God.
I believe true peace and joy come from this type of gratitude. What if we thanked God with every memory of our life? You might be thinking, not every memory in my life is gratitude-worthy. There are many things in my life I don’t feel grateful for. There are many memories from my past that I feel angry, sad, or hurt about.
I don’t believe we are called to necessarily be grateful for hard, difficult, or hurtful experiences, but I think we are called to always thank God. For those tough memories, we can simply thank God for staying present, or for loaning us His strength to get through, or for the gift of His son Jesus Christ that allows us to have more hope in our future than pain in our past. And for those horribly painful memories, I believe it is ok to just say “thank you, God. Thank you for things unseen, thank you for your promise of eternity, thank you for giving me hope for my future.” Saying thank you and feeling gratitude cures a multitude of ailments.
If today, you are facing a memory that you can’t feel gratitude about, start with a different memory. Start with a memory that is easy to feel gratitude around like a pile of calendars from when your children were babies. God gives us the strength and power to feel gratitude, we just need to tap into it. Start small and be grateful often. Maybe even start writing down small things on a daily calendar that you can reflect on later in life. By adding a little gratitude to your “rememory when” moments, you will find so much healing, peace, and joy.
God, thank you. Thank you for every part of my life that brought me to this moment. Thank you for giving us all the opportunity to feel gratitude, healing, hope, joy, and love. We are so grateful that you have provided us with your word to guide us on our human journey. Thank you for placing people in our lives who are able to travel this journey with us. We ask that you provide us with power and strength beyond our own capacity to feel gratitude even through the difficult memories. It is in your Son’s precious holy name that we lift this up.