Hey, we're already through the first word of the acrostic! I = done! Check! :) Guess we'll spend a few more days getting through the second word, won't we?
If you're behind, let me catch you up! I'm doing a little mini-series here on the blog to take a look at the phrase I CHOOSE YOU and explain why Ryan and I think this phrase is even more important to a marriage than I LOVE YOU. (Full disclosure: we're big fans of that phrase too.) If you've missed the two days we have already done, the links to read them are at the end of this post.
Today we're looking at the letter C, and for us, that stands for chronicles.
We aren't talking about First and Second Chronicles in the Bible. We aren't suggesting an in depth study on those two books - unless that's what you really want to do!
No, we mean chronicling your life together.
Don't worry. This isn't another long diatribe on the merits of scrapbooking, though you won't escape today without being reminded how much I love it, and more importantly, why I love it. This is about the many ways you can chronicle your life...and why you should!
A couple of summers ago, the pharmacist at the hospital where Ryan works had a massive stroke one afternoon. They rushed him to a bigger hospital and did everything they could, but he didn't survive. He wasn't very old, and the news of his passing shook everyone.
When Ryan and I went to his viewing a few days later, his wife told us they'd been high school sweethearts and he had been such a wonderful husband to her. We were so brokenhearted for her, because neither of us could imagine losing the other, and we knew she hadn't had any time to prepare for this upending of her own world.
A few days later, as I scrolled through the bazillion pictures on my phone, I found a photo of this gentleman. The hospital was having a cornhole tournament (which they do a couple of times every year) and it so happened that for that round, Ryan was this man's cornhole partner. I'd taken my lunch to the hospital during round one of the tournament, so I could watch Ryan play, and I'd taken pictures of both of them in action. I realized in the snapping of a photo, I'd captured a very random moment in one of this man's last days, and I had no idea.
Thinking about this surprising loss and seeing that cornhole picture reminded me in a fresh way that none of us has any idea how long we have on this earth, and we would do well to chronicle our lives while we have people here with us to be part of that chronicle. I was also reminded if Ryan or I should ever find ourselves in a place of loss like his co-worker's widow, I want the one left on this earth to have tangible memories to revisit.
And not just big-moment memories. All the memories. One of the ways we choose to show love to each other is by chronicling this life we live so we can preserve the story God has been writing for us.
Here are some of the ways we do that.
* Scrapbooking. Obviously. We'll just say that one first and get it out of the way for you, okay? As you know if you read here often, I love to scrapbook. I make my albums digitally, because it goes faster and is more cost-effective for me. I make one album for every quarter of every year, chronicling the happenings of our daily lives. I also make an album for every trip we take and every major life event - like our move a couple of years ago. My scrapbooks don't just hold pictures. I also write the stories that accompany the pictures, and we both love looking back through them to reminisce about all our adventures. (We so often find things we'd forgotten!)
* Blogging. This blog I write every day is another chronicle of our life. That's actually one reason I keep the Shafferland Shuffle around on Sundays. If I do get behind in crafting my scrapbooks, I can go back through the shuffles and see what we did on what day. I have a sister-in-law that doesn't like to scrapbook, but she has a private blog where she keeps records (words and pictures) of her family's life, and then she has the blog printed through a company so she has a hard copy option, too! (I know there are similar printing options for Facebook and Instagram, if posting on those sites is really your best chronicle mode.)
* Podcasting. I went back to listen to an old episode the other day so I could find a story I needed for a scrapbook! Our weekly podcasts are stacking up to be a great memoir of our life together - and they preserve our voices, too! Having so many great Ryan-belly-laughs stored up is a good thing, I think.
* Video recordings. This is probably our least used method, but we do have some! Back when we were first dating, I recorded us doing some car karaoke, and I showed the video to Lynne when I went to work the next day. She gave me some advice I'll never forget. She told me to keep that video, and one day down the road, when life got hard and we lost sight of why we fell in love in the first place, to pull out the video and watch it. We haven't lost sight of why we fell in love, but our dumb early-dating-years-car-karaoke is a beautiful memory to have stored up just for fun! Quick 30-second videos of silly things are fun to have on hand to keep a chronicle of your relationship and the fun you've had. We really should do more of this one, I think.
* Letters and journals. Ryan and I have a journal we started passing back and forth while we were dating, and even though we don't write in it nearly as often now, I love that little book. It holds our handwriting and our hearts' dreams. We also write letters to each other every year on our anniversary and keep all the old letters in a little treasure box. Those are precious to us, too!
* Memory box. We have a little box where we toss mementos from the year, and on New Year's Eve, we go through it and relive all the fun we had. We keep the most important things and store them in a tub. I love knowing I can go back through the bags of each year and see some of the reminders of where we went and what we did! (Maps, cards, programs, etc.)
In case you're still wondering...how does this show love?...let me tell you! You keep what matters to you, right? When we keep a chronicle of our life together, we choose to show one another that this life matters enough to preserve. These little snippets that we stop to protect do more than just make a record of history. They are a means of showing our love through reminding each other that our life together, our marriage, is important. We're not just plodding through our days as roommates. We're choosing to believe those intentional things we talked about yesterday are worth reliving as memories.
(One year, for my birthday, Ryan took me to the park and planned a whole photo shoot, because he knew how much I would love that. For me, it was more than playing with a camera. It was understanding that this day mattered and celebrating my life mattered. We still have one of the photos from that night framed in our bathroom. I see it every single day and remember how much I felt loved through a photo shoot in the park.)
We encourage you to keep a chronicle of your life together. If you're not married yet, we urge you to keep this thought on hand for when you are! We also encourage you to document your life right now! You don't have to be married to be living a life worthy of preserving! If you are married (or in a relationship) and haven't started this practice yet, give it a try! And if you're a parent, don't just document your kids. YOU are worth documenting too!
You are the keepers of your story. Choose to show love to one another by chronicling your story well!
Miss a post? Want to read the rest? Here you go!
6 comments:
So sad about that gentleman, but so true. Must document life!! Why I buy every race photo lol!
Agreed! Time spent on chronicling is never time wasted.
Tamar - I would too! Especially the last race! :)
Maria - I'm glad to hear that! I know it takes time and effort, but I think it's so important!
Well said. Blogging is a great way to chronicle. We chronicle now for our family. Our motto if there isn’t a picture there is no proof it happened.
I look forward to my chronicles to come....
Odie - So true! So if that's the case, and I stop taking pictures of my food, does that mean I didn't really consume the calories? (It's a great theory, don't you think?) I'm SO excited for your chronicles to come. And the ones you're making now are wonderful too! :)
This is a part of the reason why I blog. I wish I had more time to blog every day but I am glad for the days it does happen. This is also why I continue to print out pictures every year. The kids LOVE looking through the photo albums. And it's why I make a photo book for every major vacation lately. It does take a lot of time but it's sooooo worth it.
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