MFrozen in Timey wife loves to take pictures. It’s really the only thing she really cared about at our wedding was that we had a great photographer. Pictures have a way of freezing something in our minds. The moment becomes frozen in time.

But what happens when you don’t have a camera handy? What do you do if you’re somewhere that taking a picture would just not be appropriate? How do you keep that memory alive? How do you freeze a moment without a digital or paper photograph? 

Memories are amazingly powerful tools that God has given us to freeze a moment forever. But watching someone lose hold of their memories is a painful experience. I’m currently in a position where I spend time on a regular basis with several people who are in various stages of memory loss. You can see them searching for a word and never find it. I watch as loved ones try to think of what they did that morning only to get so flustered and angry at themselves that a tailspin of emotions sets in.

What I’ve noticed over the past several months of working with people in various stages of frozen memories is that with a little help you can take them back to places frozen in their minds! I know the temptation. It’s tempting to make them search to find that word. I know you don’t want to feel as if you’re giving them the answers but some memories have completely thawed and evaporated from their minds. Some things unfortunately they’ll never come back.

But other memories are still there and those are the memories to help them chisel away at. I find that when I visit with people in memory challenged states, that taking them back to a historic memory is a wonderful experience both for myself and for them. If I don’t know them well, I will typically ask them about their childhood. I’ll chat about the church they went to or the songs they love. I don’t know what it is about music but just reading through the words of old hymns always seems to bring a smile to the face of a lonely person who has lost a grip on their frozen memories.

Take time to make a few memories. You never know when you will need to un-thaw one of those precious moments. Slow down and enjoy the moments that are right in front of you. Tomorrow will come, if God allows it, so don’t get all in an uproar about that. Live in the moment. Be here with the ones you love. Cherish the friends and family you have today. Freeze a couple of moments so they’ll be ready for you later in life. You never know when you’ll need one.