Remember the Lord: 3 Ways to Rehearse God’s Faithfulness

My daughter was two during her Daddy’s cancer diagnosis and treatment. There will come a day when she won’t remember visiting him in the hospital. She won’t remember his funeral. She was simply just too young. But that means that she was also too little to remember all the ways that God cared for us. She won’t remember the families that brought us food, the prayers that were spoken over us, the practical needs that we didn’t have to worry about, and the faithfulness of God to be with us and to be good to us, even while we lived a nightmare. 

Perhaps you can also think of hard seasons before your kids were born—or while they were babies and toddlers—when God showed his faithfulness. Maybe he provided financial provision in the bankruptcy, a friend in the loneliness, a prayer in the heartache. Maybe he walked with you through depression or divorce. Even if we look at past experiences and really, really struggle to see through the valley of the shadow of death to his goodness, we can know there is the cross. We know that God has ultimately been faithful to save us through the work of Christ.  

As we hold our little ones—or not so little ones—in a big tight squeeze, we are holding the next generation in our arms. As their mamas, we have the privilege and undertaking to tell them of God’s works and mighty acts.[1] We pray for the day we hear them speak of the goodness of God and “sing aloud of [his] righteousness” (Psalm 145:7). Just as the people of God throughout the Old Testament were commanded to continually remember and rehearse what God had done for them,[2] we get to do the same for our families. And all of this starts before our kids are big enough to remember God’s goodness for themselves. Here are three ways we can create those moments and spaces to remember and rehearse for them what God has done—in our life and theirs. 

1. Spiritual Disciplines

We can intentionally weave stories of God’s faithfulness into our family’s practice of spiritual disciplines (prayer, corporate worship, Bible reading, etc.). When we pray with our children, we can reflect on past seasons and experiences and thank God for his goodness. When we read and memorize Scripture together, we can remind them of the faithfulness testified about in those pages. When we participate in communion with our local church, we can teach them that Christ’s death brought us life, and he promises to come again, reign, and fix all the brokenness. If our church or family follows the liturgical calendar, we can help our kids see these special, set-apart times to serve as reminders and guideposts of the works of the Lord. Moments like these can be every day, every week, every month, or every year opportunities to remind ourselves and our kids of what God has done for us. 

2. Tangible Objects

Sometimes having a physical reminder of what God has done can be helpful, like the memorial stones that God commanded Joshua to place in the Jordan river. These stones were set specifically to spark questions of the children, ushering their parents into a time of reflection and rehearsing the salvation of the Lord.[3] Think about what might be framed on our walls, placed in memory boxes, or otherwise displayed in our homes as reminders. In our home, we have a clear box filled with all the cards and notes that were given to our family during my husband’s cancer treatment and following his death. This is an intentional, visible reminder of God’s love for us through the local and global church. These cards remind us that our God always hears us, that he is indeed good to us, even when it doesn’t feel like it. They are tangible reminders to talk about God’s goodness to my daughter so that she might grow up believing it herself. 

3. Anniversaries and Milestones

Some events provide natural times of remembrance. The anniversary of a loved one’s death or family tragedy is an opportunity to leverage our lament and rehearse our hope in front of our children. Our kids need to see that remembering God’s mightiness in all situations includes the seasons of deep sorrow. Part of the beauty of creating space to remember God in these moments—even through tears—is that it helps us to see him, to know him, and to love him. We can reserve these days to grieve, and while we grieve, remember our God who tenderly holds our grief in his hands for our good and for the good of his kingdom. 

We can also use joyous celebrations as times of remembrance for our families. Maybe we celebrate the anniversary of a child’s baptism or the date we moved into that home that we didn’t know we’d ever be able to afford. Maybe we annually mark the surgery that could have had a different outcome, remembering how God chose to show his love by providing earthly healing. We can set aside events like these on our calendar to help our children set their minds on the faithfulness of God in all seasons. 

As we go through our days—the big moments and the small—our children are watching. They are listening to how we look back on our lives. They are observing how we talk about God’s work, even if they weren’t there to witness it. Our children are learning how to one day also confess the mighty deeds of our Lord in their lives. Let’s create moments and spaces to regularly rehearse and remember the words and works of God, so that we and our families may know him more and love him better. 

[1] Psalm 145:4

[2] Deuteronomy 5:15, 7:18, 8:18, 9:7, 24:9. 

[3] Joshua 4:1-24