On Father’s Day this year, a high school friend posed a question on Facebook that went something like this: “In honor of Father’s Day, what was your dad’s famous line when you were growing up?” The responses were amusing, from “Nothing good ever happens after midnight” to “He’s about as handy as a screen door in a submarine” to “I’d rather be two hours early than one minute late.” Perhaps the “dad voice” in your head is nodding in agreement.
As I thought about my own father, the first saying that came to mind was, “Name’s Wayne, pain’s the game.” (He’s not only a dad, but a doctor; so trust me, the jokes are . . . as you would expect.) But the phrase that echoes most in my mind—the one I repeat to my own sons and daughter at important junctures in life is this: “Remember who you are.”
How he said it depended on the situation. Sometimes, it had a little more levity if I was headed to the mall with a bunch of giggly girlfriends. But sometimes it had notes of “[Laura, you had better] Remember who you are [or this will not end well for you].” Usually as I left the house with my boyfriend (now husband of twenty-two years), Michael, that particular tone crept out.
Regardless, I knew what my dad meant. But I realize now that he wasn’t asking me to remember who I thought I was, he was asking me to remember who he said I was.
If you had asked me to describe myself at sixteen years old, I would have said something like this: “I am Laura Carlson. I have brown hair and brown eyes, and I’m five foot four. I like music and theater, and to be honest, I’d like to spend every minute of every day with Michael. It’s important to me to excel, to fit in, and to be liked. Oh, and my parents are Wayne and Jean . . . and I’m a Christian.” (That last sentence would be rushed. A bit of an afterthought.)
That is not what my dad had in mind. At least not most of it. In reality, my dad wanted me to remember two things:
- I was God’s daughter.
- I was his daughter.
That’s it. Just those two. My dad knew then what I know now—that seeing myself through my own teenaged, nearsighted eyes would not help me to become the woman I was meant to be. He knew that my entire identity could only be rightly viewed in the way that he saw me: as his daughter and God’s child—known, protected, loved, secure.
What Do We Remember?
I have a feeling you see where this is headed. As believers, we need constant reminders to remember who we are. But just like my dad didn’t want me to dwell on my own perception of myself, but his knowledge of who I was, God doesn’t ask us to remember who we think we are; He reminds us of who He says we are in Christ, as told in His Word.
It shouldn’t be any surprise, then, that Peter, a frequent forgetter himself, began both of his letters, 1 and 2 Peter, with a message that at its most basic level says, “Remember who you are.” (See just about any account of Peter chronologically prior to his restoration in John 21 for an interesting study in the consequences of forgetting.)
“Therefore I will always remind you about these things,” he says in 2 Peter 1:12, “even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have.” Peter knows from personal experience how easy it is to forget, so he reminds us again and again who we are in Christ:
- Born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3).
- Heirs of an imperishable inheritance (1 Peter 1:4).
- Guarded by God’s power, through faith, for future salvation (1 Peter 1:5).
- Ransomed from the futile ways of the law (1 Peter 1:18).
- Purified (1 Peter 1:22).
- Born again of imperishable seed through the living Word of God (1 Peter 1:23).
And as if that isn’t enough, at the moment of our salvation, we are:
- On equal standing with every believer (2 Peter 1:1).
- Called to His glory and goodness (2 Peter 1:3)
- Assured of all of His promises (2 Peter 1:4).
- Partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
- Provided entrance into His eternal kingdom (2 Peter 1:11).
Is your jaw on the floor yet? Because that is an amazing identity. Memorable, wouldn’t you say? But we forget, and when we do, we also forfeit our desire and ability to obey His Word, to put aside the passions of our former ignorance, to be holy in all of our conduct, to fear Him rightly, and to grow and display spiritual fruit (1 Peter 1:14–17; 2 Peter 1:5–8). That’s why Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 1:9 that “the person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.”
We, like Peter, are prone to forget. We need to remember who we are.
I’m thankful for those rich, wise reminders from my heavenly Father and my earthly father. I will gratefully hear the voice of my dad long after he is gone (not anytime soon, I hope), reflecting what Peter said so well:
I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder, since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me. And I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure. (2 Peter 1:13–15)
Thanks for the reminder, Dad.
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