The Ebenezer Stones

     This week in school, we read about how God stopped the waters of the Jordan River so that the people of Israel could walk across into the Promised Land. As they were crossing, God asked them to gather 12 stones from the river bed and set them up as a memorial. A reminder of what He had done for them (Joshua 4). This is not the only story in the Bible where we see people setting up a rock or rocks as some sort of reminder.  Another example can be seen in 1 Samuel 7:12 "Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far the LORD has helped us.'"
     I have been different places in the past where they have you write something important on a stone as a reminder, and I decided that it would be fun if we set up a classroom, memorial, stone, pile of our own. So, this morning we headed outside in search of rocks. I wanted them to write something important they had learned over the year, something they wanted to remember. We went over ideas of what that would look like and then they had some time to think.
     They came up with some good things to remember! Here are some of them.

Don't be afraid.

Don't worry.

Think good thoughts.

Trust myself.

Don't give up.

Memorize Scripture.

    These are all things that I need to be reminded of constantly in my own life as well. In fact, I find that a lot of time, the lessons that I most often go over with my students are ones I am working on learning myself. 

    So, our windowsill museum has grown once again. I do like our collection!

"You can't be too careful what you tell a child because you never know what he will take hold of and spend the rest of his life remembering you by." ~Frederick Buechner