The Wonderful Gift of Memory

"Remember this, fix it in mind. . ."  (Psalm 44:1).

Memory is such a great blessing! To forget the goodness of the past is ingratitude. We owe recognition and appreciation to the pioneers who invented the many conveniences that make our lives so much easier. But we owe thanks to our spiritual pioneers even more. Every person who broke ground by understanding a larger view and pursuing it; the translators who so painstakingly copied by hand the precious Word into the common language; every person who died for a cause that went beyond him or herself; the spiritual poets who wrote for the ages: we owe them all our awareness and gratitude, an engram for the dead ones and a telegram for the living ones who touch our lives in ways we will never fully understand on this earth.

Sometimes good memories don't stick as well as bad memories but, just as we can love with the will, so we can learn to exclude the sores of heart and mind with prayer to a forgiving Father. And we hope and pray, literally, that we won't be a bad memory for others when it is time for us to become nothing but a recollection.

Thomas Fuller, who lived in the 17th century, left this wise advice for us: "Memory, like a purse, if it be overfull that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it; take heed of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the greediness of the appetite of thy memory spoil the digestion thereof." In this age of inquiring minds that soak up the innumerable and interminable scourings of the rich and famous, Mr. Fuller reminds us that the memory cannot run on overload. Going back further than Mr. Fuller, we have the sane advice of Paul: "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business. . ." (1 Thessalonians 4:11).