Memory is a Marvellous Gift — Morning Devotions

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Transcript

Mark Twain once said, I’ve got such a good memory that I recall things that never happened. Mark Twain was making fun and being a bit tongue in cheek.

It was about memory, it says more than we realise, how good is your memory? Without a doubt, memory is a great blessing. It causes nations and people to survive, but as history can reveal, it can also be a curse, it can ruin our lives, deprive us of happiness and destroy our own peace of mind.

How many relationships have been destroyed because of an incident that will never be forgotten or overlooked. Now sometimes our memory does funny things, takes us back to our childhood days, the good old days. I’m not sure they were all good, but we’ve progressed so much in the recent decades. You possibly could have a toxic memory. Now what I mean, let me tell you a story.

Two brothers attended a church each week, they’d done that for, for years, they sat across in different parts of the church. They had hardly acknowledged each other’s presence, and finally the minister, he eally was disturbed by this. What, what’s wrong?

Well, Reverend, me and David, they said, we had an argument a number of years ago. Well, how long? Oh, about 30 years. What was it about? He said, to tell you the truth, I don’t even remember, but I was sure as mad. I was mad about something.

Now that’s a toxic memory, it’s destructive beyond the memory. Now it might sound a bit silly, but there is an edge to this that we can relate to. Maybe you’ve heard the joke, which really is not so funny when me and my spouse argue, she gets historical. You mean hysterical? No, she gets historical, recounting every hurt and every disappointment over the length of our marriage.

Our memories can really hurt us.

Sometimes there’s little you can do to heal the wounds of the past. Other times you can choose to put what’s happened in the past in its proper place and move on. And I often say that life’s too short to hang on to the small irritations of life. We may even have guilty memories. There’s so much power in that little word if. If only I’d called the doctor in time, if only I’d slowed down. Or if I’d just spent more time with my kids — they’re strong statements of self-accusation.

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Memories that lead to guilt are like leeches actually that suck the lifeblood right out of us. Guilt, what can it do? It can’t bring back the dead or save lost relationships. It often can’t mend any wounds. So memory is both a friend and a foe to be cultivated, but also to be guarded.

Each of us carries around a sack full of emotional memories. Some are good, some are bad, a few are exciting, some are fairly scary, and years later, these memories can still make us smile or weep because they make an imprint in our hearts and minds. And that’s where we need to be careful because if you and I allow a memory to have too much influence over the present or the future, we’ve got a problem.

And I say that because feelings, opinions, the people involved, physical conditions, all these things can distort how we’re thinking.

Memory can be a wonderful blessing, bring lots of laughter or even tears as we look at pictures and share stories. Someone has said that memory is the way of holding onto things you love or the things you are, the things that you never want to lose. And it’s important, I think that every memory you have is filtered through a lens of your own personal perspective.

Interesting, when eyewitnesses give an account, they always, almost always give different stories of the same thing. Emotions and past experiences will always influence our perspective.

David Siemens, a Christian psychologist, has written some great books about this, and he said we cannot change our memories, but we can change their meaning and the power that they have over us. So what he was meaning was that with God’s help, you and I can control our memories so that they do not control us. Have you ever had a day ruined because you’re unable to shake an unpleasant memory?

Well, with God’s help, you can have peace of mind and heart and move on and the Holy Spirit can be more powerful than your memory. Spend time in prayer, ask God to give you everything that you need.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, sometimes memories of the past do haunt us, the mistakes or the errors of judgement, the bad decisions I’ve made. But what can I do? I’ll come to you, Lord, for forgiveness and the healing of my memories. Amen.

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