I was sitting there in church yesterday morning on Memorial Day and thinking how wonderful our Heavenly Father is to bring such a message right NOW - when our Life Group is in the middle of a a marriage bible study, wanting our relationships to not only be better, but make a difference in our families and in our world.
Our Pastors sermon was on leaving a memorial with our lives within in our personal stories. He referenced Joshua 4 - when Joshua ask his people to build their memorials of 12 stones (their Ebenezers) it was to honor all that God had done, all they had made it through and survived, to show and remind generation after generation what miracles, rescues, what abundance of grace had been bestowed on them, and of all His promises kept.
Joshua 4:4-7 says
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. 5 He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 6 We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
I was thinking, how wonderful that our Pastor literally walked us through how to write our stories – using his as an example – that Heritage, Relationships, etc, each were a stone in our memorial. I was thinking how much our marriages can be a integral stone in our memorial to our generations to come.
WOW, imagine part of the heritage stone of our childrens or friends memorials one day being that " _______ and _________ " (insert your names here) loved me most through how they loved one another, and that they became examples I followed".
Might they one day say my husband and I modeled a marriage of love, grace, compassion, selflessness, forgiveness, kindness, affirmation, a faith in God, and that we placed Him above all? I sure hope so.
Joshua 4:21-24
21 Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea[c] when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. 24 He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.”
What an amazing blessing that our marriages could be one more part of building our story, our memorial, and our Ebenezer for those we love - all for HIS GLORY!!!
Joyful on the Journey
Marisa
Marisa
