Forgetting What I Should Remember and Remembering What I Should Forget!

I am wearing a hospital-type bracelet to remind me to pray for our students who are at camp this week.  Each time I feel it, look at it, or adjust it, I am reminded to pray.  And pray I have!!  Lots of adjusting and looking and feeling…therefore, lots of praying!  I must remember to pray for them!

 

 

 

Driving to church Wednesday I put the ring from my right hand on to my left hand ring finger to remind me to tell something to a lady at Bible study.  I have used this method to remind me to do something for decades….and it works!!  Disclaimer—only use this method if what you need to remember to do/say is right away.  It is quite annoying to have all of those rings on the same finger long term!

 

I have pictures of missionaries on our refrigerator to remind us to pray for them as they serve.

 

I put items to be returned or taken to someone/someplace on the kitchen counter—in plain sight—to remember to take them to who they go to.  Dishes to be returned, gifts to take, letters to be mailed, etc.

 

I write lists in the Reminders app on my iPhone or iPad (and low and behold—if I put something in one, it will appear in the other!!  Gotta love technology!!) as well as take advantage of the Notes app.  This is awesome because I always have the list with me and can refer to it any time, anywhere and remember what I need to do.

 

What ‘trick of the trade’ do you use to remind yourself to do something?  I am totally open to new and better ideas of ways to remember!!

God is all about reminders.  In fact, in Numbers 15:37-41 (Look it up!  Read it!  It is awesome!!)  He tells the people of Israel to attach blue tassels to the hem of their garments as a reminder to obey all of the commands of the Lord!!!  He says to do this to remember to be holy instead of following our own desires!!!

Crazy isn’t it that God knows we need reminders!!!  Go grab a blue tassel!!  They are readily available at sewing centers everywhere!!  I know this because I have gotten lots of blue tassels!!!  I desperately want to remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following my desires!!  I desperately need to remember that He is the Lord my God and that He has brought me out of bondage!!!

Now….here’s the frustrating thing…

I put the bracelet on Sunday morning after church.  Yesterday I was shocked that I didn’t feel it so much anymore or adjust it or see it.  It has become part of the proverbial ‘landscape’ and it has become the ‘new normal’.  For the first time in four days the bracelet did not prompt me to pray!!!  I saw, I felt, I adjusted and I carried on….I forgot!  For a few seconds that is!!  When I realized what happened….I prayed!

By the time I got to church with the ring on my other finger I had forgotten why I put the ring on my other finger!

Many times the items that I put on the kitchen counter to take somewhere sit there for so long that they, too, become part of the ‘landscape’ and I no longer see them and I forget and they don’t get where they are supposed to get.  Same with the missionary pictures!!  Their pictures blend in with life and I forget to pray for them!!

The lists in my Reminders app and my Notes app often never get referred to because I forget that I even made the list!!

Sadly, I also forget He is Lord.  I forget He has brought me out of bondage.  The blue tassel has become familiar landscape and I must refocus and re-remember.

Way too often I forget what I must remember (things like He loves me, His power is perfected in my weakness, that as believers we are to impact our culture, that He does not care about the color of skin, that the church must express and live love, etc.) and I remember what I must forget (things like what mean people have done, every mistake so-and-so has ever made, what is behind, etc)!! 

 

Powerful words.  Powerful truth.  Father, help us to remember what we must remember and to forget what we must forget!!