Tuesday Tidbit: Praise and Thanksgiving

Write your memoir to carry out these verses: 

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

His faithful love endures forever.

Who can list all the great things He has done?

Who can ever praise Him half enough?

Psalm 106:1-2

Holy threads, consecrated strands, hallowed fibers, blessed filaments

God’s footprints alongside ours, his fingers all over our lives: Divine intervention.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? We like having God intimately involved in our lives.

But “...divine intervention is nowhere near as simple a thing as we might imagine,” writes Ravi Zacharias (Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives).

Think about this:

Sometimes those footprints alongside ours are muddy.

Sometimes tattered, stinky, holey shoes left those footprints.

Sometimes those fingerprints all over our lives are sticky, smudged, scarred, bloody.

Divine intervention “cannot be only a journey of unmistakable blessing and a path of ease,” Zacharias continues. “To allow God to be God we must follow him for who he is and what he intends….”

Each of us has heartaches, disappointments, failures.

Too many experience betrayal. Unfaithfulness. Abuse. Bullying. Racial prejudice and profiling.

Some know hunger and sickness and handicaps and homelessness.

We know loss, grief, exhaustion, confusion.

Hopelessness.

Other times our lives seem hum-drum: We’re boring people living boring lives. We wonder if we matter, if we are worth anything of value.

“…Incident follows incident helter-skelter leading apparently nowhere,” Frederick Buechner writes, “but then once in a while there is the suggestion of purpose, meaning, direction, the suggestion of plot….” (The Alphabet of Grace)

That’s what Zacharias calls us to see: “the designing hand of God and his intervention in our lives” so that “we know he has a specific purpose for each of us and that he will carry us through until we meet him face-to-face….”

Yes, sometimes life is blah, but other times life knocks the air out of us. If we let him, and if we work with him, God uses all of it to shape and polish us, to mature and beautify us—though we might not understand it at the time, or even see it.

Zacharias challenges us to imagine our lives as exquisite fabric—vivid, brilliant colors with threads of gold and silver intertwined—and to see God as the “Grand Weaver . . . with a design in mind for you, a design that will adorn you as he uses your life to fashion you for his purposes, using all the threads within his reach.”

You are important to God. You are his workmanship, his treasure. He is custom-making the fabric of your life. Your life is sacred.

While writing your memoir, look back over the years and search for each thread and color—the dark ones and the pastel ones, the heavy ones and the light ones, the coarse ones and the golden ones. Those are holy threads. Consecrated strands. Hallowed fibers. Blessed filaments.

Search for—make it your quest to—discover the excellent one-of-a-kind pattern the Grand Weaver is creating out of you.

Go back: Look for spools of thread, God-designed, for you alone. Watch and listen for the sound of the shuttle going back and forth in God’s hand. He’s making something beautiful: You.

The more you grasp

how important you are to God,

and that he’s crafting you

into his masterpiece,

the better you can write

your God-and-you stories—

and the better you can share them

with your children,

grandchildren,

great-grandchildren,

and generations yet unborn.

God can use your stories to teach others

That they, too, are important to Him.

They are his workmanship, his treasure.

He is custom-making the fabric of their lives,

And their lives are sacred.

P. S. I can't get the links to work today. This new computer might be the problem.... Sigh.... Anyway, here are links:

Grand Weaver, by Ravi Zacharias: https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Weaver-Shapes-Through-Events/dp/0310324955/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509044209&sr=8-1&keywords=Grand+Weaver%3A+How+God+Shapes+Us+Through+the+Events+of+Our+Lives

The Alphabet of Grace, by Frederick Buechner: https://www.amazon.com/Alphabet-Grace-Frederick-Buechner/dp/0060611790/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455245629&sr=8-1&keywords=alphabet+of+grace

You are important to God: https://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/you-are-important-to-god.html

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers:  https://www.amazon.com/My-Utmost-His-Highest-Paperback/dp/1572937718/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1509047085&sr=8-2&keywords=my+utmost+for+his+highest

Tuesday Tidbit: Telling the next generation

…I will utter…things from of old— 

what we have heard and known,

what our fathers told us.

We will not hide them from their children;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

He decreed statues…

and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children,

so the next generation would know them,

even children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds….”

Psalm 78: 2-7 (NIV)

This is what SM 101 is all about!

Write your stories!

Holy threads, consecrated strands, hallowed fibers, blessed filaments

God’s footprints alongside ours, His fingerprints all over our lives: Divine intervention.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? We like having God intimately involved in our lives.

But “…divine intervention is nowhere near as simple a thing as we might imagine,” writes Ravi Zacharias (Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives).

Think about this:

Sometimes those footprints are muddy.

Sometimes tattered, holey shoes left those footprints.

Sometimes those fingerprints are sticky, smudged, scarred, bloody.

Divine intervention “cannot be only a journey of unmistakable blessing and a path of ease,” Zacharias continues. “To allow God to be God we must follow him for who he is and what he intends….”

Each of us has heartaches, disappointments, failures.

Many experience betrayal. Unfaithfulness. Abuse.

Some of us know hunger and sickness and handicaps and homelessness.

We know loss, grief, weariness, confusion.

We know hopelessness.

Other times our lives seem hum-drum: We’re boring people living boring lives. We wonder if our lives matter, if we are worth anything of value.

“…incident follows incident helter-skelter leading apparently nowhere,” Frederick Buechner writes, “but then once in a while there is the suggestion of purpose, meaning, direction, the suggestion of plot….” (The Alphabet of Grace)

That’s what Zacharias calls us to see: “the designing hand of God and his intervention in our lives” so that “we know he has a specific purpose for each of us and that he will carry us through until we meet him face-to-face….”

Although sometimes life is blah, other times life knocks the air out of us, if we let Him, and work with Him, God uses all of it to shape us and polish us and mature us and beautify us—though we might not understand it at the time, or even see it.

Zacharias challenges us to imagine our lives as exquisite fabric—vivid, brilliant colors with threads of gold and silver intertwined—and to see God as the “Grand Weaver… with a design in mind for you, a design that will adorn you as he uses your life to fashion you for his purpose, using all the threads within his reach.”

You are important to God. 

You are His workmanship, His treasure. 

Your life is sacred.

God is custom-making the fabric of your life. Look back over the years and search for each thread and color—the dark ones and the pastel ones, the heavy ones and the light ones, the coarse ones and the golden ones. Those are holy threads. Consecrated strands. Hallowed fibers. Blessed filaments.

Search for—make it your quest to—discover the excellent, one-of-a-kind pattern the Grand Weaver is creating out of you.

Go back: look for spools of thread, God-designed, for you alone. Watch and listen for the sound of the shuttle going back and forth in God’s hand. He’s making something beautiful of your life.

The more you grasp

how important you are to God,

and that He’s crafting you

into His masterpiece,

the better you can write

your God-and-you stories—

and the better you can

share them with your children,

grandchildren, great-grandchildren,

and generations yet unborn.

Tuesday Tidbit: From generation to generation

Here’s your 15 seconds of inspiration, your Tuesday Tidbit:

“Some of the best stories

are those spun from everyday life

or from our past.

Family stories are held together

and handed down

from generation to generation

in stories.

And these strong cords of memory

actually become

the ties that bind.”

Chuck Swindoll

(emphasis mine)

Tuesday Tidbit: Your life, a detective story

“ . . . Everybody’s life, I believe,

is a kind of detective story,

every clue of our forbearers’ lives,

every decision,

missed opportunity,

guessed motivation,

a part of the solution to our own existence.”  

Robin Hemley 

quoted by Dr. Linda Joy Myers  

Tuesday Tidbit: From generation to generation

Here's your 15 seconds of inspiration,

your Tuesday Tidbit:

Tuesday Tidbit – From generation to generation

Here's your 15 seconds of inspiration,

your Tuesday Tidbit:

What stories do you need to write

so that

your future generations

can know what 

God has done for you?

Tuesday Tidbit – “We will all die one day”

Here’s your 15 seconds of inspiration for today,

your Tuesday Tidbit:

“We will all die one day.

That is one of the few things we can be sure of.

But will we die well? That is less certain.

Dying well means …

making our lives fruitful for those we leave behind.

The big question, therefore, is …

‘How can I prepare myself for my death

so that

my life can continue to bear fruit

in the generations that will follow me?’”

(Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey)

One way to "bear fruit in the generations that will follow" is to do what Jesus said, “Go back to your family and tell them everything God has done for you. 

Get your God-and-you stories into writing for your family!

You are a God-designed link between generations past and future

We will tell our children,

and the generations that come after us,

God-shaped family stories our parents and grandparents

passed down to us.

Let’s not hide them

from our children and grandchildren.

Instead, let’s tell stories of what we have seen God do—

His power and might,

and the glorious and praiseworthy things He has done—

so that we and they will praise Him.

God commanded our ancestors

to teach such things to their children

so they in turn would teach their children

down through the generations.

This is His plan

to help all of us grasp and remember

His deeds and miracles

and live faithfully according to His ways.

Psalm 78:2-7, paraphrased

God established this ingenious plan—to teach our children and grandchildren what we’ve seen Him do—because He knows we’ll benefit if we know, love, and follow His ways.

Instead of preaching do’s and don’ts, tell stories that will help kids and grandkids discover for themselves what’s important.

People resist a holier-than-thou attitude, but they respond well to a story. Stories are powerful.

Your stories can entertain, 

they can cause readers to laugh, 

or cry, 

or maybe both, 

and they’ll remember your stories longer than 

lectures or preaching.

“A story is up to twenty-two times more memorable than facts alone,” according to Professor Jennifer Aaker of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.   

Through your stories, 

others can benefit from your experiences: 

Readers can take in the wisdom you learned, 

avoid mistakes you have made, 

and make their own good choices. 

They can navigate through their own difficulties 

and mysteries, 

make sense of their own lives, 

and have a sense of direction for the future. 

Your stories can soften and strengthen hearts, 

pass on hope, 

and offer grace.

Write your stories. They are important!

Tuesday tidbit: The pages of your life

Here's your 15 seconds of inspiration,

your Tuesday Tidbit:

Your stories are important.

Future generations need to know them.

Let’s not keep our stories to ourselves

Inspiration to keep you writing your stories

“Young people are educated in many ways,” writes David Brooks, “but they are given relatively little help in understanding how a life develops, how careers and families evolve, what are the common mistakes and the common blessings of modern adulthood.”

Dan Allender helps us with this perspective, “Our story begins with the characters who gave us birth, including their past relationships with their parents and issues such as success and shame; power and abuse; love, loss, and addiction; heartache and secrets; and family myths. Our birth is a beginning, but we owe our existence to the generations that came before us. Our beginning … took place before we were born….” (To Be Told)

“I discovered how much the stories about the women who came before me, who are now gone, matter to me now,” says author Joy DeKok. “I can draw from their wisdom and learn from their decisions, mistakes, and successes. As a society, we often discard our elderly or those already gone as insignificant. This lie birthed a passion in me to urge men and women of all ages to preserve and share their stories now so this generation and those to come later, will have the benefit of their wisdom and life-knowledge.…

“The world, or my corner of it, [is] changed when I share the past forward. … The past can only have value in the future if we preserve it now.… The world is hungry for real-life stories.… We want to watch how people  cope, respond, mess up, and succeed.… People want our stories.” (Joy DeKok, author of Your Life a Legacy)

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.… 

They will tell of the power of your awesome works.… 

They will celebrate your abundant goodness

and joyfully sing of your righteousness. 

(Psalm 145: 3-7, NIV)

You have a story inside that younger generations need to hear. Only you can write it best. Connect your story with God’s story and write yourself onto the pages of your family’s Christian history.

Each generation

Some mindboggling events have happened in the past few months.

(You can read the newest blog post about this here: 
Sometimes God changes the desires of our heart.)

Because of these changes,

 my next few blog posts will be brief but, I hope,

meaningful to you personally as well as in writing your memoir.

(This is a scene from Port Angeles, Washington, a place we called home for 14 years.)

The “secret sauce”

If you’re struggling to keep writing your memoir, 

this is just what you need.

“What is the secret sauce that holds a family together?” asks Bruce Feiler. “What are the ingredients that make some families effective, resilient, happy?”

Feiler spent several years researching those questions and “a surprising theme emerged. The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.” (“The Stories That Bind Us,” New York Times)

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know when I read those words I hollered, “Yessss! That’s why we write memoirs!”

Feiler applauds the work of psychologist Marshall Duke, Duke’s wife Sara, a psychologist working with children, colleague Robyn Fivush, and their “Do You Know?” measure. For example:

“Do you know where your grandparents grew up? Do you know where your mom and dad went to high school? Do you know where your parents met? Do you know an illness or something really terrible that happened in your family? Do you know the story of your birth?”

Their research showed that the more children know of their family’s stories, the more they demonstrate emotional health and happiness and the more resilient they are when faced with challenges.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Through their research, these scientists discovered God was on the right track when He told us to tell our kids and grandkids what we’ve seen Him do for us! (Deuteronomy 4:9; 6:5-9; 6:20-25) Their research verifies Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said, “Go tell your family what the Lord has done for you” (Mark 5:19).

Children who know their family’s stories—successes and failures, triumphs and setbacks—know they are part of what Dr. Fivush calls an “intergenerational self,” that is, “they know they belong to something bigger than themselves.”

Belonging to something bigger than themselves. That, too, echoes what we know of God: He created humans with a yearning for fellowship, community, and of belonging to something bigger than ourselves.

First, He wants us to enjoy belonging to Him. God told His children, “I have called you by name; you are Mine!” (Isaiah 43:1 NAS) He promised He would never forget His children: “See, I have written your name on my hand” (Isaiah 49:15-16). His love is an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). God delights to have us belong to Him as part of His something bigger than ourselves.

Second, like so many other ways in life on this earth, God places us in families—community, something bigger than ourselves—as a foretaste of the ultimate belonging we’ll enjoy with Him for eternity.

Bruce Feiler concludes,

“Bottom line: if you want a happier family, create, refine, and retell the story of your family’s positive moments and the ability to bounce back from the difficult ones. That act alone may increase the odds that your family will thrive for many generations to come.”

Believe it: Your story is important! It’s the “secret sauce.”

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 

So stir up that “secret sauce that holds a family together” and write your stories! Help your children, grandchildren, and great-grands find their identity in your family and God’s family.

New York Times bestseller, Bruce Feiler, is one of the country’s most popular spokesmen on family and faith. He writes a column, “This Life,” for the Sunday New York Times. Much of his NY Times article, The Stories That Bind Us, is adapted from his new book, The Secrets of Happy Families.)

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.