Tuesday Tidbit: Celebrate God’s grace upon grace

Make time to remember:  

• God’s blessings, one after another,
• His favor,
• His grace on your behalf,
• His mercy,
• and gifts,
• heaped upon you—all because of the abundance of God’s grace.

And when you have remembered, write them into your memoir. Create a memoir that's a celebration of God!

When even God says you’re old

Today I’m celebrating … um … I am observing a significant birthday.

Getting old humbles a woman.

The other day I looked over my body, wondering if I could find one square inch without wrinkles. I found a place—depending on how I hold my arm—but I tell ya, it’s not easy to show off the underside of my forearm in public.

As if that’s not humbling enough, even God seems to be reminding me I’m old.

While thumbing through my Bible I ran across this—highlighted! Who highlighted it?!? Not me!—so I took it as a sign to apply the verse personally:

In Joshua 13, God looked at Joshua and said, “You are getting very old.”

Sheesh! I suppose He’s looking at me today and thinking the same thing.

I’ve wanted to hear Him say many things, but never that. Never, “Linda, you are getting very old.”

Joshua must have squirmed at what God said next: He pointed out Joshua still had big tasks to carry out before it was too late—duties only Joshua could complete.

God listed specifics and then said, “You’ve gotta do this, Joshua, as an inheritance. Leave this legacy for your tribes—your family. Do it. Do it now.”

That got me to thinking. And squirming. He has tasks for me to accomplish while I’m still walking on this earth, things He wants me to pass on to my kids, grandkids, and great-grands. 

It’s like He is saying, “You’ve gotta do this, Linda, as an inheritance. Leave this legacy for your tribes—your family. Do it. Do it now.”

I can’t know how many days or weeks or years I will have to prepare and complete that legacy so I’ve been asking myself,

• What should be my priorities?
• What am I doing with the time I have left? Am I wasting it with pursuits that have little or no significance? What activities do I need to set aside so I can spend my time wisely?
• What legacy do I need to be working on?

One of my priorities is carrying out Deuteronomy 4:9, “Always remember what you’ve seen God do for you and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!”

I want to tell our stories—not because our family is special but because God is special. 

It’s not about us. It’s all about God. I want my stories to celebrate Him.

Perhaps you, too, suspect it’s time to rearrange your priorities. What legacy should you be preparing before it's too late?

Since inheritances come in assorted forms and shapes and sizes, which are the most important to pass on to your kids, grandkids, and great-grands?

Do you hear God’s voice today? In one way or another, He’s whispering in your ear, “You’ve gotta do this, (fill in your name), as an inheritance. Leave this legacy for your family. Do it. Do it now.”

Focus on finishing well and leaving God-and-you stories for your kids, grandkids, and great-grands—not because you’re so special, but because God is so special.

He can use your stories to bless, 

teach, entertain, challenge, 

and shape those who come after you—for His glory.

Revised from original post published June 27, 2012

For your memoir’s grand finale: Psalm 136

Recently we’ve been considering your memoir’s ending. You want, and need, to create a grand finale—an ending that will impact your readers. (Click on Do you know how your memoir will end? and Give muscle to your memoir’s ending.)

Your grand finale gives you an opportunity—a chance to highlight your moist important points, those messages you want your readers to remember and apply to their own lives.

Most of us here at SM 101 write our memoirs because of verses like Deuteronomy 4:9 which tells us:

Always remember what you’ve seen God do for you

and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!

(That doesn’t mean you must mention God in every incident/chapter/vignette, but you, the author, will pull everything together, recognizing God was always with you and acting on your behalf even if you didn’t recognize Him at the time.)

Craft a grand finale that celebrates God in a personal way.

One of the easiest, most powerful ways to craft a grand finale is the following fill-in-the-blank exercise using Psalm 136, a magnificent song of praise to God—a celebration of God.

You’ll customize your own version of Psalm 136 starting in verse ten, but first let’s look at verses one through nine. Praise focuses on God the Creator of all: He is good and His love endures forever. He made the heavens, spread out the earth upon the waters, and made the sun, moon, and stars.

I suggest you include those first nine verses, as-is, in your grand finale, then starting with verse ten, you can tailor-make the rest of the psalm for your memoir.

Here’s what I mean.

Starting with verse ten, praise focuses on God who is personally involved with His children—their families, their daily comings and goings, and the span and purposes of their lives.

For example, those next few verses praise God for bringing Israel out of Egypt and recount the additional ways God showed His love and faithfulness to His people, Israel.

Your customized version of Psalm 136 could look something like this (and you will fill in the blanks, listing the ways God guided your family):

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.

            His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

            His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords:

            His love endures forever.

to Him who alone does great wonders,

            His love endures forever.

who by His understanding made the heavens,

            His love endures forever.

who spread out the earth upon the waters,

            His love endures forever.

who made the great lights—

            His love endures forever.

the  sun to govern the day,

            His love endures forever.

the moon and stars to govern the night;

            His love endures forever.

_______________________________

His love endures forever.

_______________________________

His love endures forever.

_______________________________

His love endures forever.

…and so on. (Psalm 136, NIV)

Starting with verse ten, you might want to go back several generations, especially if, for example, your family survived the Holocaust, or the infamous Clearances in Scotland, the potato famine in Ireland, a war, or the Great Depression, or some other challenge. Or maybe you know (or can research) stories of your family as pioneers or immigrants.

Add as many lines as you wish. Probably the more the better!

Your grand finale will likely consist of

more than a paraphrase of Psalm 136,

but including it can help your kids, grandkids,

and other family members

recognize they are part of God’s family,

part of something much bigger than themselves and their generation.

Make your grand finale a celebration of God!

Whether twenty years old or seventy, God has helped us every step of the way

Your job and mine, as memoirists, is to serve as “a hand pointing in the direction of the past.”

But here at SM 101, we do more than that. We do more than tell stories from the past.

Here we dig deep within those stories to discover what God has done for us—stories about His constant companionship each day, each year.

The beauty of memoir is looking back, examining, and discovering significance we might have missed at the time.

So now, at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, it’s good for us to reflect on the past twelve months because too often we don’t take time to recognize that, in the words of dear old Samuel, “The Lord has helped us every step of the way” (1 Samuel 7:12, NIRV).

Back in the 1800s, C. H. Spurgeon pondered that same verse in The King James Version: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”

He wrote:

“The word ‘hitherto’ seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet ‘hitherto hath the Lord helped us!’”

Or, in today’s language, “Whether twenty years old or seventy, ‘the Lord has helped us every step of the way.’”

Spurgeon continues,

“Through poverty,

through wealth,

through sickness,

through health;

at home,

abroad,

on the land,

on the sea;

in honor,

in dishonor,

in perplexity,

in joy,

in trial,

in triumph,

in prayer,

in temptation,

—‘hitherto hath the Lord helped!’”

If we invest time in looking over Spurgeon’s list in light of our own past, we’ll see that every day, in each event, even in the worst of times, God has always hovered in our midst, working out His best plans.

For now, jot down a list, make a few notes, and promise yourself—and your family, and God—you’ll write those stories in 2015!

Each story is worthy of being told.

Each child and grandchild—niece, nephew, and “spiritual child”—needs to know your stories. 

Each story can be a celebration of what God has done.

Always remember, and never forget,

what you’ve seen God do for you,

and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!

(Deuteronomy 4:9)

reposted from December 31, 2011

Related posts:

Your stories: Not because of who you are, but because of who God is

What’s your memoir’s ultimate purpose?

”Jesus replied with a story.”

You, dear memoirist, are divinely linked to the reason Jesus told parables.

You see, there’s a reason you won’t find spreadsheets and charts and bullet points and graphs in the Bible. There’s a reason that, instead, the Bible is full of stories.

There’s a reason Jesus replied with a story (Luke 10:30).

You see, stories are among God’s most powerful and effective tools.

Your memoir’s stories can be among God’s most powerful and effective tools.

Stories uniquely illustrate, illuminate, and educate.

“Humans respond to ‘story’ differently than they do to the same content organized into any other narrative form and structure.…” says Kendall Haven.

Research has confirmed that “The human mind processes ‘stories’ differently than it does other narrative forms [such as ‘a lecture, a talk, a presentation’].” Haven continues, “Words and sentences—seemingly magically—suddenly become, in the mind of the listener, a story and, at that moment, the receiver’s mind begins to respond to and to process the material differently.…

“The human brain is literally hardwired to process stories differently than other forms of information.… They create meaning from stories differently.… Stories can lift human hearts and make them soar into the heavens. Stories can literally changes lives! The same information delivered in a non-story form rarely does so.…” (Kendall Haven, emphasis mine)

Peter Guber says it this way:  “Stories … are far more than entertainment. They are the most effective form of human communication, more powerful than any other way of packaging information.…

“PowerPoint presentations may be powered by state-of-the-art technology. But reams of data rarely engage people and move them to action. Stories, on the other hand, are state-of-the-heart technology—they connect us to others.… Without stories,” Guber says, “we couldn’t understand ourselves. They … give us much of the framework for much of our understanding.… While we think of stories as fluff, … something extraneous to real work, they turn out to be the cornerstone of consciousness.” (Peter Guber, emphasis mine; http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201106/the-power-stories/the-inside-story)

Whether Haven and Guber know it or not, they’re referring to the fact that God created humankind to respond to stories.

God uses stories. They are powerful. Stories are among God’s most compelling and successful tools.

As you write your memoirs, then, recognize you’re participating in a God-inspired, God-planned practice that has taken place since before recorded history.

Yours is a sacred calling.

Your stories can help readers examine their lives and make sense of who they are and why they were born. They can help people find their way.

Your stories can pass on wisdom and motivate people to do the right thing and to live honorable lives.

They can calm anxiety and offer tenacious hope.

They can shine light on possibilities, offer solutions, and change a life’s direction.

Your stories can illustrate truth, honesty, and integrity.

They can inspire loyalty and commitment.

Your stories can transform hate into love, fear into courage.

Your stories can teach, influence, empower, and heal.

They can break down barriers.

They can bring comfort, cheer, and redemption.

Your stories can solve mysteries and help people make decisions.

They can inspire an awe of God, His majesty and glory.  

They can lead people to His love and grace.

God can use your stories to change someone’s life for now and eternity.

Write your story! 

Remember your memoir’s ultimate purpose. 

(Click on that link!)

Your memoir’s Grand Finale

Even if you’re still writing your memoir, you can begin planning your Grand Finale—your conclusion, or postscript, or epilogue. Whatever you call it, it could be the most powerful part of your memoir.

Your Grand Finale gives you an opportunity to highlight the most important points, those messages you want your readers to treasure and incorporate into their own lives.

If, like most of us here at SM 101, your memoir’s purpose is based on Bible verses like Deuteronomy 4:9—

Always remember what you’ve seen God do for you

and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!

—then craft a Grand Finale that celebrates God in a personal way.

I have lots of ideas for your Grand Finale, but let’s start with one of the easier ways to craft your memoir’s ending: a fill-in-the-blank exercise using Psalm 136, a magnificent song of praise to God.

In the first nine verses, praise focuses on God the Creator of all:

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.

          His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

          His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords:

          His love endures forever.

to Him who alone does great wonders,

          His love endures forever.

who by His understanding made the heavens,

          His love endures forever.

who spread out the earth upon the waters,

          His love endures forever.

who made the great lights—

His love endures forever.

the sun to govern the day,

          His love endures forever.

the moon and stars to govern the night;

          His love endures forever.

I suggest you include those first nine verses as-is because, starting with verse ten, you can customize the rest of the psalm for your family.

Here’s what I mean:

Starting with verse ten, praise focuses on God who is personally involved with His children—their families, their daily comings and goings, and the span and purposes of their lives.

For example, those next few verses praise God for bringing Israel out of Egypt, parting the Red Sea, and leading them through the desert wilderness. It then recounts the many additional ways God showed His love and faithfulness to His people, Israel.

Your customized version of Psalm 136 would look something like this, (with you filling in the blanks, below, with ways God guided your family):

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.

          His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

          His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords:

          His love endures forever.

to Him who alone does great wonders,

          His love endures forever.

who by His understanding made the heavens,

          His love endures forever.

who spread out the earth upon the waters,

          His love endures forever.

who made the great lights—

          His love endures forever.

the sun to govern the day,

          His love endures forever.

the moon and stars to govern the night;

          His love endures forever.

_______________________________________

          His love endures forever.

_______________________________________

His love endures forever.

_______________________________________

          His love endures forever.

_______________________________________

          His love endures forever.…

…and so on.

Starting with verse ten, you might want to go back several generations, especially if, for example, your family survived the Holocaust, or the infamous Clearances in Scotland, or the potato famine in Ireland.

Your Grand Finale will likely consist of more than a paraphrase of Psalm 136, but including it can help your kids, grandkids, and other family members recognize they’re part of God’s family, part of something much bigger than themselves and their generation. 

When even God says you’re old

Today I am celebrating a … um … I am observing a significant birthday.

Getting old humbles a woman.

The other day I looked over my body, wondering if I could find one square inch without wrinkles. I found a place—depending on how I hold my arm—but I tell ya, it’s not easy to show off the underside of my forearm in public.

As if that’s not humbling enough, even God seems to be reminding me I’m old.

While thumbing through my Bible I ran across this—highlighted! Who highlighted it?!? Not me!—so I took it as a sign to apply it personally:

In Joshua 13, God looked at Joshua and said, “You are getting very old.”

Sheesh! I suppose He’s looking at me today and saying the same thing.

I’ve wanted to hear God say many things, but never that. Never, “Linda, you are getting very old.”

Joshua must have squirmed at what God said next: He pointed out Joshua still had big tasks to carry out before it was too late—duties only Joshua could complete.

God listed specifics and then said, “You’ve gotta do this, Joshua, as an inheritance. Leave this legacy for your tribes—your family. Do it. Do it now.”

Well, that got me to thinking. And squirming. God has tasks for me to accomplish while I’m still walking this earth, things He wants me to leave for my family.

It’s like God is saying, “You’ve gotta do this, Linda, as an inheritance. Leave this legacy for your tribes—your family. Do it. Do it now.”

I can’t know how many days or weeks or years I have in which to prepare and complete that legacy, so I’ve been asking myself, What should be my priorities? What am I doing with the time I have left? Am I wasting it with pursuits that have little or no significance? What activities do I need to set aside so I can spend my time wisely? What legacy do I need to be working on?

One of my priorities is carrying out Deuteronomy 4:9, “Always remember what you’ve seen God do for you and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!”

I want to tell our family’s stories—not because our family is special but because God is special.

It’s not about us. It’s all about God.

I want my stories to celebrate Him. 

Perhaps you, too, suspect it’s time to rearrange your priorities. What legacy should you be preparing?

Since inheritances come in assorted forms and shapes and sizes, which inheritances are the most important to leave your kids and grandkids?

Do you hear God’s voice today? In one way or another, He’s whispering in your ear, “You’ve gotta do this, (fill in your name), as an inheritance. Leave this legacy for your tribes—your family. Do it. Do it now.”

Focus on finishing well and leaving God-and-you stories for your kids and grandkids. God can use them to bless, teach, entertain, challenge, and shape those who come after you—for His glory. 

Saturday Snippet: What’s your memoir’s ultimate purpose?

The Bible records—often—God’s reason for acting on behalf of His people: so that they’d know Him—“Then you will know that I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 6:6-7, 1 Kings 20:13, Ezekiel 37:5-6, and Joel 2:19-27), and so that people would see Him and praise Him.


God does the same today: He assures us of His love and faithfulness by doing things for us, sometimes in earthshaking ways, but usually in everyday ways.


So here you and I are, writing stories of what He has done for us—writing so that our readers will see Him, know Him, and praise Him.


Let this sink in: Your memoir can stir up a response similar to accounts told in Bible times.


For instance, think of yourself as the man in Mark 5:1-10, “So the man [insert your name] went away and began to tell the Decapolis [insert your readers’ names] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.”


You want your readers to respond the same way: You want them to be amazed at God!


The beauty of memoir is looking back, examining, and making sense of the past.


When we invest time in sifting through the past, and looking at it from a distance, we see that in even the worst of times, God was always on the scene, in our midst, working on our behalf.


The following Bible passage captures my vision—my prayer, my heart’s desire—for the memoir classes I teach and for this blog:

“Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;

his greatness no one can fathom.

One generation will commend your works to another;

they will tell of your mighty acts.

They will speak of

the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

They will tell of the power of your awesome works,

and I will proclaim your great deeds.

They will celebrate your abundant goodness

and joyfully sing of your righteousness.”

Psalm 145:3-7, NIV

Keep working on your WIPs (works in progress, rough drafts) and as you do, make a conscious decision: write your memoir as a celebration—a celebration of God in all His goodness, faithfulness, holiness, and splendor.

Your ultimate goal: Write celebrations of God!

Like George Herbert said in the illustration above,

consider yourself

a secretary of God’s praise.

Inspiration and Celebration

Spiritual Memoirs 101 is about inspiration and celebration, with a focus on Deuteronomy 4:9, “Always remember the things you’ve seen God do for you, and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!”

Inspiration is one of my favorite words. I pray that within this blog, you’ll find inspiration.

What words come to mind when you think of inspiration? 

I think of infusing with enthusiasm, encouragement, passion, gusto, and eagerness.

Inspire: to cheer, persuade, set in motion, buoy up, guide, fire up, and energize.

Week by week, you and I will examine the art and craft of memoir and, as we do, my heart’s desire is that you’ll receive inspiration to write and write and write and write.

Celebration is another of my favorite words. It conjures up images of joy, glee, jubilation, and delight.

Celebrate: to cheer, applaud, shout approval, give a standing ovation, praise, honor, and pay tribute.

I pray that within and beyond this blog, you’ll participate in a celebration—ultimately a celebration of God in all His goodness, faithfulness, holiness, and splendor.

May God help us remember all we’ve seen Him do for us, and with us—and even in spite of us.

May He give us a longing to write those stories for our children, grandchildren, and “spiritual” children as well—precious people God has brought into our lives whether we share DNA or not.

Your stories are part of God’s stories, and God’s stories are part of your stories.

People need to hear those stories. Believe it!

Get ready to write!

This week’s assignment: Start a list of things you’ve seen God do for you and add to it throughout the week.

Next week we’ll answer the question, “What is a memoir?” and you can get started in earnest.

I’m so excited you have this opportunity to write your stories. You might not realize it yet, but penning your memoir could change your life!