Thursday, January 6, 2011
Positive Memories
This wont be very long today, but I hope it will be meaningful. I was listening to a radio program the other day and I wanted to share the general idea of what it was about. They were talking about the power of positive memories. The point is that you can choose to dwell on positive memories or negative ones. In the Bible, God has a lot to say about remembering. The word "remember" is found 148 times and "remembrance" is found 53. We should take time to dwell most especially the things that God has done in our lives and how He has been faithful to us. Even if you arent Christian, dwelling on positive memories is much better than negative ones. So what are you dwelling on today? As we begin this new year, lets all take time to think about some positive memories.
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How many times does the Bible encourages us to forget?
ReplyDeleteI tend to take most everything I do to extremes. I was raised on the mantra, "forgive and forget" to the extent that in the early 70's a therapist realized I had no childhood memories, whatsoever. Good, bad or indifferent, my childhood was simply gone. Getting past those memory blocks was a long, hard road. I had to learn things about memory that "normal" people never need to know. Among the things I had to learn is that a memory is simply a memory. "Good" and "bad" are judgements.
Getting to the forgiveness part had to wait until I got the memories back. Who needs forgiveness when you have forgetness.
Ahh..yes, I forgot to add that part. There was one illustration that they gave that was very powerful. Think of it like an art museum, with a section of positive memories and a section of negative. When you visit the positive section, bring with you thankfulness. When you visit the negative section, bring with you forgiveness, or repentance if you are the one responsible for the negative.
ReplyDeleteNice ideal, I reckon. For sure, it's totally pop and I am totally willing to accept it works for the undamaged masses. Such compartmentalism simply doesn't work for me. It amounts to premeditated schizophrenia. For me it works better to leave the traumatic memory in its original context and think of it as a stain on a wall. I can ignore it until I have repressed the entire room from my cognizant awareness. I have already demonstrated an enormous capacity for this trick. Hence what my therapists called "trauma induced amnesia." I can stare at the stain until it is all my awareness can hold. I can let it be and learn to walk past it without becoming discapacitated.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to memories, a simple paintjob won't due. The memories will always bleed through the coverup.
I still want to know: How often does the Bible encourage us to forget?
I am checking into that for you!
ReplyDelete