Recently my mother in law lost two months worth of photos. Including her daughters wedding and a once in a life time trip to Maine. So this has prompted me to make sure that all of my photos are backed up. We use hard drives, a service called BackBlaze and I also upload thousands of photos to Flickr. I currently have over 62,000 photos stored there. For only $25/year that’s pretty hard to beat. Now there’s no guarantee that something won’t go wrong and I’ll lose all my photos. So I’m also in the process of printing hard copies and getting back into scrapbooking. Always wanting to save and pass down these precious memories.
All of this got me thinking. How do you store you memories? In photographs? Through a journal? In a blog? Can I encourage you to begin writing if you’re not already? I write this blog to encourage others and yet, most every time I write, the Lord ministers to me. I write with an open heart and an open mind and I always feel the Spirit lead me in a different direction. Writing has opened up doors within that I didn’t know I had shut.
I have hand written journals from years ago that I love to look through. I began when I was a fresh believer. I had faith back then that could move mountains. It’s funny how the years have gone by how my strength has wained. No. It’s sad. So going back and reading those entries is so incredibly encouraging. Knowing that it’s not impossible to turn away from the world and choose a completely different life.
I began blogging back in 2002. Not this site, mind you. Just personal blogs for the most part. Then it happened. I lost six months of writings. From the birth of my second daughter on. I cried. And cried. And cried. My memories were gone. I had photos, thankfully, but there’s something about the written word that really draws you back to the moment.
And that’s one way the Lord communicates with us. The co-authors of the Bible did not write for any audience other than God. They didn’t have a blog that they anxiously watched the stats for. They didn’t desire to hear comments from others on what they wrote. Their communication was with God. And how thankful we should be that they obeyed the Lord when the Spirit encouraged them to write! Look at all the wonderful books and letters in the Bible we can read from because of a small act of obedience!
So maybe now is the time to begin saving your memories? Pass the lessons you’re learning down to the next generations. Through photographs, letters and maybe even video? There are not too many blogs out there. If you’re nervous make yours password protected and only for your eyes. Use an alias. Do something! Personally I love a *real* book. Something that contains your very own handwriting and is tangible. I’m planning on making blog books of all my posts to pass on to my children.
Let the Spirit lead you and teach you as you pick up a pen/keyboard/camera and begin writing your story.
Blessings!
