i realized today as i was sitting by the lake that most days i am wearing three different scripture references right next to my skin. i went down to the lake to catch my breath and just enjoy a moment of quiet between the events of the day. i was holding my necklace and meditating on the scripture it represents and my mind wandered to this idea of actually carrying scripture around all the time to remind me of the truths i so desperately need to refer. then it sort of just came to me that i had three represented right there with me.

it’s not a new idea. moses commands the people of israel in deuteronomy to do this.

place these words on your hearts.

get them deep inside you.

tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder.

teach them to your children.

talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street;

talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night.

deuteronomy 11:18-19 the message

so here are my three daily reminders, constantly present with me, of God’s precious word.

first, my wedding ring:

it’s actually in greek, because my brilliant husband was studying greek in seminary when we got married.

it’s the phrase: as unto the Lord from ephesians 5. tai’s wedding band (also in greek) says as Christ loved from the same passage. both short phrases are the essence of longer thoughts about how husbands and wives are meant to love one another. the dance, the give and take of submission and sacrifice. i love to glance down at my wedding ring and remember both truths. and that it takes both. sometimes one of us is fulfilling the promise better than the other, but over 13 years of marriage, there have been some glorious moments where grace rained down and we were both in step with these ideas and it just works.

the second scripture reference is engraved on the inside of a james avery ring that i bought four of when three girls that i had been meeting with for a while were all graduating from college. we had studied revelation together that year and each of us had been impacted by the first five verses of chapter two. we all took away the idea that we are to remember our first love, jesus. we each spent time nourishing that thought and trying to reach back to the moment in time when we had first become acquainted with jesus and were completely enamored with him, reading the first four books of the new testament, just to read again of his compassion, his teaching, his unorthodox way of approaching life. we began to say to one another…remember your first love. i still hold those three darling gals in my heart. and even though we none of us live in the same state (or even country in one case), when i glance at my ring finger on my right hand i pray that each of them are remembering their earliest, most passionate feelings for jesus. and i tell myself again to remember.

and the last piece of jewelry has on it my most favorite verse in the whole bible. i put it on everything from my 30th birthday contemplative retreat, an event i have mentioned before on this blog. i was studying isaiah when i moved to arkansas and this verse served as the inspiration for our new house. i painted our living room blood red, much to the displeasure of everyone involved, most especially my grandfather who still comments on how oppressive it was. the room no longer exists because we later took a wall down and repainted, but for our first several years here, our living room was red and our bedroom was (and is) bright white. my favorite verse was manifested on the walls of my house to remind me over and over again that though my sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. i don’t believe that God means for me to walk around laden with guilt and overwhelmed by my sin. but my disposition has always been guilty. i blame my parents for naming me alison, which means truth. i have never been able to lie well. just this week my dad told me that i still don’t have a poker face. my roommate in college said if she had to describe me with only one word, it would be convicted. and while conviction of heart can be a beautiful act of spirit within me, its counterpart…my hyperactive guilt gland can be an ugly stick with which i beat myself. so somewhere in a bout of guilt and shame and sadness, i latched onto this verse.

what is sweet to me is that because of my birthday (and my crazy paint job), people who are close to me remember that this verse is special to me. my aunt made me a beautiful planter for my 30th birthday with this verse etched onto it. and this year, i was delighted when whitney gave me a necklace for my birthday with isaiah 1:18 on it. it hangs around my neck most days now and i refer to it as often as i do to either of my rings. remembering that i am forgiven for all those things i did a long time ago. and for those words i said yesterday. and even for the unkind thoughts i had this morning. confessed. covered. clean. white as snow.