"YOU SHALL REMEMBER!"

Deuteronomy 24:17-18                                (ESV)
"17 "You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge,
18 but "YOU SHALL REMEMBER" that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your GOD redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this."



We are SO blessed to live in a country where, at least according to our founding documents, the people are the rulers and are the ones in control.  Sometimes we get so caught up in our busy lives that we tend to forget, not only where we are coming from, but where we are headed to?   "This world is not my home, I'm just passing through " needs to be more than a line of a song, it should reflect a lifestyle we live!

Me, personally, my mother and father divorced when I was four years old, leaving my two sisters and I to be raised by my mom, with NO input, financial support, or love from my father.  As a matter of fact, he moved to Canada to avoid paying child support to my mom, and for us kids.  I often expressed to my sons while they were growing up that I didn't have an example to rely upon and that I was "playing it by ear", for I didn't want to be anything like my dad!  My formative years were not something that I wanted to focus on, and so it was difficult to say to me "YOU SHALL REMEMBER", as I was mostly trying to forget!

Last evening my wife and I were blessed to attend a fellowship about an hour from where we live where a group of people are being used to reach youth and children, a lot of whom are being reared in unfavorable circumstances.  Some of these kids come from homes where there is little, or no, parental involvement.  I could remember my childhood and the feeling of being "disconnected" while watching some of these children.  Although there will always be neglected children in "this world", NO CHILD should have to feel the "disconnected" feeling of a parent who isn't involved with their lives.

They say you can't fully appreciate where YOU ARE unless you can remember where you have been.  To be placed where "YOU SHALL REMEMBER" isn't an extremely comfortable position, but to see where I am now (comparatively) makes me see how blessed I really am.  The Israelites could do nothing about being slaves in Egypt, until GOD delivered then from bondage.  Last night, seeing "the bondage" of these children caused "YOU SHALL REMEMBER" to flood my mind.  JESUS paid a tremendous price to deliver me from the bondage of sin, and I pray "YOU SHALL REMEMBER" will always be at the forefront of my memories!!