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In the Margins of my life

I have a Bible…  It is old…  It has been with me for 15 years now.  It is marked up, written all in, colored and doodled in.  Stickers from High School and college are scattered all over the covers and note pages.  I got this Bible when I was a teenager and I have finally found a new Bible that I really like.  Something about going through my old Bible brought back a lot of memories.  I would write in the margins notes about how the verses spoke to me or about how I questioned them.  I wish I had the knowledge and foresight to date my notes or to write clearer or to write full thoughts instead of sentence fragments.  I wish there was a way for me to say, I want my notes from 1998, I want to know how God spoke to me in that time. 

It is easier now, because there’s an app for that.  (surprise surprise)…  I love my Bible on my Kindle (it is called YouVersion)- already it has made it easier for me to date and take notes.  I have gone through my old Bible, tattered, ripped and over used, and looked at the notes that are legible and comprehendible and remembered what God was doing in my life in those days.  I remember how He was moving and how He was working. 

God asked people to take notes.  In Exodus 17:14 “(then) the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.’”  This was after God helped Joshua battle the Amalekites and defeat them with His help.  It is ironic that God put this concept into my head to devotion on today, but it is the exact same passage that I heard a riveting sermon on this Sunday. 

If we don’t document what God is doing in our lives, then how are we to remember?  How are we to look back and see how God has shaken us from despair, from hatred, from failure and made us into who we are today… In Ester, King Ahasuerus had his scribe read to him from what had happened before and realized that Mordecai had saved his life which ultimately lead to a parade glorifying him.  Again and again, it is important to look back.  I have been really terrible about documenting my life.  It used to be that everyone had a journal that they would keep.  A diary to document what all happened in their lives.  We have really gotten away from that, I am terrible about journaling (other than on here), but I can’t look back and see what God has taken me out of.  I can’t look back and say, even in my hardest, darkest times, God pulled me out of the clay and held me up.

So my goal this year is to start documenting my life.  For me only.  Journal in the good and in the bad, when I am frustrated and when I am blessed and next year, I will read through it and see what God brought me through and know that He can bring me through whatever the next year has to throw at me.  He can get you through it too!

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