Psalm 106: 13 and 21:  “But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.  They forgot God their Savior who had done great things in Egypt.”  Throughout Scripture, God instructed his leaders to not forget what He had done for his people and how He had led them.  Unfortunately, his people consistently forgot what He had done for them and failed to pass their history to the next generation.  A number of years ago, my wife and I visited Germany and spoke with many German people about the past.  The most frequent comment from them was their fear that the current and future generations would forget the time of Hitler and World War II and not learn from that evil time in world history.  The same concern could be said for our nation today.  However, our focus must include what God has done for us as individuals and families which is the real context of most passages where God told his leaders to remind their children and future generations of what God had done.

I will never forget a time when my oldest granddaughter climbed into the lap of my mother and asked her, “Grandmother, tell me what it was like when you were growing up?”  Mother told her about growing up in the post depression ear and how God provided for her family. We too often live in the present and forget the important past that has brought us to the present.  We are not to live in the past, but we are to remember the past and what God has done for us.  It is our responsibility to remember what God has done and to share it with those whom we lead.  Christianity is a personal relationship with Christ and this relationship must be what we remember and cannot forget to tell others.  Our personal walk with Christ is the most powerful witness to share and to impact others.  If we forget to share it, we cut off our life story.  My children lived through a lot of my personal story, but my grandchildren were not born for a large part of it.  It is my leadership responsibility to not forget to tell them about my own life story and how God worked in it.  Leaders don’t forget to do this and must appreciate its impact in the lives of those whom they lead.