memories

For many of us, traveling the path toward spiritual and emotional wholeness requires that we learn to remember our pasts differently. We’ve fallen into the pattern of traversing the same old unhealthy memory ruts again and again. The original wounds may not have been of our doing, but we’re the ones who choose to keep going back to them repeatedly in ways that only perpetuate the hurt. The memories we choose to repetitively relive have a way of not only defining who we were, but also they can come to shape who we are now and who we will become. The good news of the gospel of grace is that we can choose to no longer allow painful memories to dominate our thinking which results in our continuously perceiving ourselves, our relationships, and our world in a negative way. There’s the old saying “forgive and forget,” and I do believe it’s absolutely essential that we forgive, but I’m not sure it’s possible to totally forget, nor do I believe it’s necessarily wise. Though we may not be able to completely forget, we don’t always have to remember, and when we do remember, we can choose to focus on good memories and let them come to define us. And if we have trouble remembering many positive experiences in life, we can intentionally begin to create new and meaningful memories. This Christmas—I wish you new and meaningful memories.