Life has a way of filling every available space. Calendars crowd quickly, energy runs thin, and even the best intentions can quietly drift to the margins. For many parents and grandparents, faith is deeply valued—but remembering God in the middle of real life can feel harder than we expect.
This post is about why remembering God matters so deeply, how Scripture calls us to pass faith on intentionally, and why the gospel gives us hope even when we fall short.
Click the link below to listen to the 'Remembering God' message, and then dive into practical ways to live out this calling in everyday family life.
Remembering God in Our Own Story
In the early 2000s, my husband and I went through a season where money was incredibly tight. Bryce was working as a logger, and during this particular winter, there was simply no work. We had two young children, and we made the difficult decision that there would be no Christmas presents and not even a Christmas dinner that year.
A week before Christmas, a neighbour knocked on our door and handed us a Christmas card. Inside was $500. A few days later, Bryce’s boss showed up with a gift card so we could buy a full Christmas dinner.
We will never forget God’s provision in that season. And because we don’t want to forget, we tell that story—often. We tell it to our kids and to our friends as a way of remembering God’s faithfulness and goodness.
God’s Call to Remember
Scripture is filled with this same invitation. When God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, He didn’t just deliver them—He told them to remember. In Exodus 13:3, Moses said to the people:
“Remember this day. It’s the day you came out of Egypt. That’s the land where you were slaves. The Lord used his mighty hand to bring you out of Egypt.”
Throughout Scripture, God continually calls His people to remember who He is and what He has done—and to pass those stories on. As parents, we need to be clear about this truth: the salvation of our children is not within our power. That belongs to our sovereign God, and that is very good news. But Scripture also tells us that we *do* have a responsibility—to teach our children about God, to talk about His faithfulness, and to help the next generation know Him.
Remembering on Purpose
In Deuteronomy 4:9, Moses urges the people:
“Be very careful. Don’t forget the things your eyes have seen… Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”
Later, in the book of Joshua, we see this call lived out in a powerful way. After God miraculously stopped the Jordan River so the Israelites could cross on dry ground, Joshua instructed twelve men—one from each tribe—to take stones from the riverbed and set them up as a memorial. Joshua explained why: “In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them… The Lord your God did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” (Joshua 4:21–24)
God wanted physical reminders—visible, tangible markers—that would spark questions and open conversations about His faithfulness.
What Happens When We Forget
The book of Judges gives us a sobering picture of what happens when remembering stops.
“After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.” (Judges 2:10)
This wasn’t an overnight failure. It was a slow drift. Stories stopped being told. Worship shifted. Eventually, God was replaced with idols. Forgetting always leads to replacing. And while our idols today may not look like Baal or Ashtoreth, the reality is the same.
Modern Idols in Family Life
Idols are not just statues—they are anything that captures our hearts, time, money, and attention in ways only God was meant to.
For many families, idols don’t look bad. They look good.
- They look like packed schedules and constant activity.
- They look like sports or commitments that quietly crowd out church and spiritual rhythms.
- They look like screens that disciple our children for more hours than we do.
- They look like achievement, success, comfort, safety, and happiness at all costs.
Most of us don’t choose idols intentionally. We drift into them. And our children are watching—not with judgment, but with attention—learning what truly matters by what we prioritize.
Prioritizing God Begins With Us
So how do we keep from forgetting? Scripture doesn’t give us a complicated strategy—it gives us an intentional one.
In Deuteronomy 6, God says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength… Impress these commands on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
God wasn’t speaking to pastors or religious professionals. He was speaking to parents. Before faith is something we teach, it’s something we live. This kind of discipleship happens in everyday life—messy kitchens, car rides, bedtime conversations. It’s not about perfect family devotions; it’s about presence and consistency.
As Ruth Haley Barton writes, “Those who are looking to us for spiritual sustenance need us first and foremost to be spiritual seekers ourselves.”
When parents prioritize God—through Scripture, prayer, Christian community, and a genuine love for Jesus—it naturally overflows into family life.
The Hope of the Gospel
The message of Christianity is not, “Try harder. Remember better. Don’t mess this up.”
The gospel tells us something far better: *we are forgetful people, but we are loved by a faithful God.*
Throughout Scripture, God’s people forget Him—and yet He never forgets them. Where Israel failed to remember, God remained faithful. And in Jesus, God remembered us fully.
On the night before His death, Jesus took bread and said: “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Jesus Himself is God’s greatest reminder—of grace, forgiveness, and rescue. Our hope is not that we will perfectly disciple our children. Our hope is that Jesus is the perfect Saviour.
When we fail—and we will—we don’t hide in shame. We return to Him. We repent. We remember. And we begin again. As Lamentations 3 reminds us:
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Returning Again and Again
Our children don’t need perfect parents. They need parents who are pointing to a perfect Saviour.
- They need to see us repent.
- They need to hear stories of God’s faithfulness.
- They need to watch us reorder our lives when something else starts to take God’s place.
Remembering God doesn’t mean we never drift—it means we know where to return. And when we remember Him together, we pass on something far greater than information. We pass on the hope of the gospel.
Got questions? We'd love to answer them!
Please contact Crystal Stulp | Kids Pastor - crystal@centralcommunity.ca