Raising My Ebenezer

Yesterday I finally finished a piece of art that I started in the middle of spring semester. Honestly, it was so detailed that it was hard to find the motivation to do it, but I am so glad I did. I feel accomplished. Then, last night Dani, Tyler, and I watched the first Harry Potter. We are going to watch all of them. It would have been interesting if you could have been a fly on the wall for our conversations during the movie. We talked about everything from memories of when it came out in theaters to picking who in our ward would be which characters. It was the best.
Today I went to devotional with them. I was kind of listening and kind of not, but I learned some amazing pieces of information. For instance, in the song Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, when it says, "Here I raise my Ebenezer..." that is a real thing. Ebenezer means "stone of help." To raise your Ebenezer means to remember. It was a stone set up by the prophet Samuel in the Old Testament as a token of gratitude for deliverance from the Philistines. The people of Joshua also raised a sort of Ebenezer. They crossed the Jordan River on dry land much like when they were being led by Moses and he parted the Red Sea. When they crossed, the Lord commanded one member from each tribe of Isreal to get a stone and create a monument  to commemorate their crossing. This monument of twelve stones was their Ebenezer. It was in remembrance of what the Lord had done for them so they would not forget. The speaker said that we need to have our own Ebenezers to remind us of the hand of God working in our own lives. I have a few things, but I know that I need to start writing down spiritual experiences more thoroughly in my journal so if I ever come to doubt what I know, I will be able to look back and remember. This is going to be a new goal of mine so I will be able to raise my Ebenezer to help me, those around me, and my future family.