Over this past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to The Great Homeschool conference in Cincinnati Ohio with my mom and sister and it was so so much fun. I got to meet some authors and talk to different vendors and go out to eat and stay up late eating popcorn with my sister, and I could go on and on.
But it wasn't necessarily the conference that was so much fun - it was the time spent with my mom and sister and the fact that I've gone to this conference for six or seven years in a row so it's very... nostalgic.
This conference used to be my girl's weekend with my best friend. We would go every year and walk around with our moms getting as much free stuff as our bags could possibly carry, eating candy and snacks and going out to eat.
As it became sort of a... tradition, we'd go to the same places to eat, and take pictures of ourselves in the same places, every year. We'd go to the same fountain and the same ice cream shop and take pictures of the same pig mural, and every year we looked forward to it like it was Disney World, not a homeschool conference for our moms.
I've gotten pretty much all my favorite books from this conference, met some of my favorite authors, laughed so so hard, and have some of my best memories saved on iMovies on an old purple iPad that I used to lug around with me everywhere.
This homeschool conference has some of my best memories, and as I look back on those pictures, I can see just how much I've changed.
Now, my best friend doesn't come with me but my sister does, which is just as good. I don't fill my bag with pens, but I do get bookmarks and business cards from authors I like. I actually talk to the vendors, instead of sneaking by and grabbing their candy.
And I realize now that it wasn't what I did or where I went, it was who I did it with. It was the people I spent time with because it's always about the people.
Good times are created by the people around us, not the things we're doing. Memories are formed around people, not just places. And as I look back, I can see one Person through all of it.
One hand guiding every step and every change. One King walking beside me through the different ups and downs of my life and my friends' lives and my family's lives.
One God, faithfully walking with me and supporting me and being the faithful God I had to lean on and trust.
Looking back on the homeschool conference and seeing how I've changed through pictures of the same fountain and Graetor's ice cream shop is just one way I can look back and see God's faithfulness.
His faithfulness that got me through highschool and the craziness of Covid and all the ups and downs of life and were reflected in just a small way through this conference.
I can look back on pictures of me with my friend, and compare them to pictures of me with my sister, and see that He is faithful. She's still my friend, my sister is even more my friend, and God has grown and shaped me a lot in that.
I can look back on pictures of me eating at Chipotle, and compare them to pictures of me eating popcorn and chips and snacks, and see that He is faithful.
Because He is. He is always and forever and forever will be faithful.
He will never leave you. He will always be there for you. He is always listening. He is good.
And we can say all of these things to ourselves and still lose hope. We can say He is faithful, and still worry, and still doubt, and still be afraid. We can say He is good, but still curl our fists and inwardly shout because it is far easier to look back on His faithfulness, than to remember that He is faithful still, right now, when we can't see ahead.
It is so much easier to look back at pictures, and see His goodness, now that we're through the hard times and at the other end of the tunnel.
It is so much easier to look back on His faithfulness now that we understand, than to trust His faithfulness now, when we don't understand and when we can't see the whole picture.
It is so much easier to trust Him then than to trust Him now.
But those pictures - those pictures are so so important. Those memories and the nostalgia and the ability to look back and see His faithfulness is vitally important because it shows us that He was faithful.
And if He was faithful, why would He stop?
If He was good and He did get you through that hard time and He was there for you... why would He all of a sudden stop?
He hasn't stopped loving you. He hasn't stopped caring about you. And He is still faithful.
So look back at those pictures, and look forward, reminding yourself that He was faithful then, and He still is.
Look back on those memories and see His hand working in your life and tell yourself that it's still working. He is still here. He is still good.
Pull out your pictures and see the wonderful awesomeness of His ever-present, always-loving faithfulness, and worship Him for that. Because He still is! Nothing has changed - He never changes!
Those pictures and memories are reminders that He's there. He's got you. Trust Him.
Sometimes, we have to look back a little to remind ourselves that when we look ahead, He isn't going anywhere.
Sometimes we have to glance into the past to prove to ourselves that He had us then, and He's got us now.
Whether you're looking back on conference pictures or baby pictures or really, really hard pictures and the memories that come with them, remind yourself that He is still walking with you. Even when it looks like there's only one set of footprints, He's there. He's got you.
He is faithful.
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