April 13th, 2016 
dsisler
If you have had the privilege of having a rich heritage, you probably have some keepsakes around your home. Dishes, utensils, occupational tools, toys, jewelry or wood working equipment could be in the mix of some of your keepsakes. Some may be valuable as far as the world is concerned, but for the most part, these items are valuable to you or they are a keepsake because of the sentimental value placed upon the item.
I’m no different. I have plenty of these keepsakes in my home. I am thankful for all of them and I hope that one day my children and grandchildren will find the meaning and importance of these items.
But what I pray more than anything is that the keepsakes they find to be more valuable are the things that a price tag can’t be placed upon. My faith. My values. My knowledge from studying Scripture. These are some of the things that I want to pass along to my loved one. These are some of the things upon which I pray my legacy is built.
God knew the importance of sharing His ideas with future generations. Altars or memorials were built to remind younger generations of His mighty work in the lives of the Hebrew nation. One in particular is found in Joshua 4:20-24. In this passage, Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the crossing of the Jordan River and set them up at Gilgal. As future generations saw these stones and asked what they meant, they were to share the story of entering the Promised Land. What a keepsake!
If we think of a keepsake as something by which we remember another, God’s commands are keepsakes for us to remember. God shared other ways to remember these keepsakes in Deuteronomy 11:18-21 (NIV).
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.”
Another passage with instruction on keeping God’s commands and guidelines is found in Proverbs 7:2-3 (NIV). “Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.”
God’s keepsakes are far more precious and valuable than any earthly keepsake. Sometimes we forget the importance and sometimes we disregard their value, but when we are in line with God’s teachings and when we remember them as keepsakes, we are one step closer to living the abundant life.
What keepsakes in God’s Word are you holding onto today? What keepsake in God’s Word will you pass along to those you love? What “keepsake of this world” do you need to toss to the curbside?
Keepsakes are very precious and meaningful. And God’s keepsakes are even more so!
Grace and peace be yours in abundance,
Donna
