“I name years like I’ve named babies because each one births a different life that needs to be raised up and remembered.”
I have continued this tradition in my own little family and each year we also write down a gift to the Savior on little note cards and then determine to live out these gifts during the year.
And so, for me, my Christmas gift to the Savior becomes the theme for my upcoming year and the foundation for all of my goals.
And this year, upon this bright white canvas of 2017, I wish to give the gift of remembering. Remembering all that my Savior has done for me. Remembering how far I’ve come on this life’s journey, and remembering all of the lessons I’ve learned.
- Remember by reading all of my past journals and blogs {my journals are extensive and I can’t wait to see how far I’ve come as I read back through the pages of who I once was and how the Lord blessed me}
- Remember by sorting through and organizing our photo library {this will be a staggering project, but so freeing}
- Remember by creating more family memory movies {which are compilations of video footage I shoot with my phone, edit, cut, and put together to music…we love to watch them on New Year’s Eve.}
- Remember those who have blessed my life and thank them in some small way
It is good for the heart to reflect. It is good for the soul to ponder on the past in gratitude – because it is only in looking back that we most easily see the hand of the Lord – and how He has always been there right by our side. I haven’t always known this lesson. There was a time, a few years back, when I wondered if the heavens were shut to me. I was walking through the furnace of affliction, and I couldn’t understand why I felt so alone. Where was my Savior when I needed Him most?
Walk out on the water
Where you have no control
Scared to death of failure
Sacrifice your soul, please let that go’Cause you have climbed an uphill road
You have worn a heavy load
You have cried through endless nights
Nearly given up the fight
Watch your dreams like fallen stars
Heartache made you who you are
Looking back you see that I have always been there’Cause I am on your side
Though the wind and waves
Beat against your faith
And you were on my mind
When the world was made
Trust in me my child,
Trust in me my child(~excerpt from I Will Show You Love, by Kendall Payne)
And at that moment I knew without a doubt that one day I would look back and see that He had always been there. This was a pivotal point in my life. It deepened my faith in the Savior and gave me a reason to hope. And thus, these years later, I want to practice the art of remembering. This year, I want to go within the stillness of my heart to the dormant parts of my memory, back to the stormy waves I’ve crossed — so I can see my Savior walking by my side.
