O Remember, Remember

I have had a number of times recently where I have had the recurring theme of remembering pop into my mind. And it is remembering specific things.

I don't remember a lot of conference talks, but one that I actually remember pretty well from over a decade ago was given by President Henry B. Eyring, with the same title as this post (O Remember, Remember, October 2007).

One main thing that I have wanted to do for a long time (because of this talk) but never got around to, was to do what he had done for years. He would write down things every day. He said: "I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: "Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?" As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would case my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done."

I think about all the little things that happen in my life, things that are just straight-up blessings directly from God, yet they were maybe even mostly unremarkable, until I gave it some thought and really felt impressed that God has a hand in the details of my life.

One fairly recent example was this: My oldest, Josh, drives to school every day, and leaves pretty early to attend early morning seminary. My 3rd, Wesley, goes to school across the street from Josh's school, and he rides home with Josh every day. One morning, Wes realized he had left his backpack in Josh's car, so I sent him with a spare key to go get it out of Josh's car before school. It turns out, after school, Josh accidentally locked his keys in the car. But because Wes "happened" to have left his backpack in there, and I "happened" to send him with a spare key, he was able to unlock the door and they were able to be on their way.

When I heard about this circumstance, I had a distinct thought that this happened because it was meant to. Was it a big deal for Josh to have locked his keys in the car? Not really. Someone could have been there in 15-20 minutes to open up the car and get him on his way. It would have been a little disruption to our work, but not a big problem. But I really felt like God orchestrated this whole thing to just make it a little easier on us.

See, it's often the consistent little things that show love, maybe even more than the monumental, occasional acts that happen. 

Anyway, at the end of the day, I decided that I wanted to try what President Eyring did. I want to recognize the hand of God in mine and my family's life. I want to make note of these things so that I can remember. As I thought about where to do this, I had another moment of "remembering"... I remembered that I started this blog forever ago that was just about things that are on my mind. It has been sitting dormant for quite some time, but I think I'd like to use it to accomplish this purpose: to see God's hand in my life and others around me.

Let's see what else we can remember!