How you see something determines how you name it. When you name it that is how you will remember it. If we name it based on what we expeienced personally, versus what God did there will be significant. History is the fact about what happened in any given situation. We give names to situations we have experienced and therefore we remember that situation based on the name we gave it. 

Did you know every situation you have been through has had a negative name attached to it and a position name attached to it. How you choose to remember it will determine how you remember it. Just because you name it negative does not mean it was all negative. Just because you name it positive does not negate there were negative or challenging things that happened during it. 

In Exodus 17 there is a story of Israel in the wilderness called Rephadim. They have left Egypt, but they are not yet in their promised land. At this camping location, there is no water. The people are thirsty and they are upset with Moses because he is their leader and they expect him to provide for their basic need for water. Moses agrees, so he cries out to God asking him what to do. 

Exodus 17 says, “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”

Two things happened at this location. One the people quarreled with Moses and they tested the Lord asking is the Lord among us. Two the Lord released water from the rock and declared THE DROUGHT IS OVER! Moses named this place Massah and Meribah for the strife and testing, so every time they revisited that place they were reminded of the strife and testing. 

What if they named that place THE DROUGHT IS OVER or JEHOVAH JIREH the Lord provided? Both happened in that location, but the naming of it is what was linked to the memory of it and throughout the Bible it is called the waters of Meribah, rather than THE DROUGHT IS OVER. Be mindful of how you name things in your past, they will either invoke shame, anger, bitterness and other negative things or they will remind you of the faithfulness of God. How we name historical markers in our life matters.