Forget Me Nots

 

Can you imagine if we lived in a world that we could forget all the stupid things we have done in our past, or the stupid things we have said? I know I have said the stupidest things at the worst possible times. UGH! At times, I have stuck my foot so far down my throat that I can still walk on it! And then there are all those things I have done! The things I have said, cannot compare to the stupid things I have done! Bad, Bad decisions! And then when I am driving down the road or if I wake up in the middle of the night, those things come screaming back to me from the recesses of my mind in flaming color! All the details spill out before me like it was happening all over again. These aren’t just stupid decisions as much as they are sinful acts. These things are not necessarily against the law of man, but the law of God! They should be illegal but no, they just violate all of my morals. I guess maybe my morals were pretty lame back then.

The good news is that I recognized my mistakes, my stupidity, my bad moral judgments, and repented before God. He is soooooo good! He doesn’t just forgive us, but says He will remember them no more. “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Isaiah 43:25   How AWESOME is that! Now why can’t I do that? Why do I keep remembering them? He says He does it for His own sake. I want to do it for my own sake. AND I CAN!

One thing to remember is, if you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are a new creation. I am a new creation. The old me is gone and with it, all those wretched things I have done. I have been given a clean slate and each time I repent, I get a clean slate again. Does that give me permission to do it again and again, NO. I have not fully repented if I am going to continue to do it. Repentance is turning from the sin, not continuing to do it and asking forgiveness for it again and again. But that is another post…

So back to forgetting it. If God is willing to remember it not for His own sake, I am sure He won’t mind if I don’t remember it for my own sake. Most of the time, we do things because we don’t know any better. I am remembering these things, because I didn’t know that I had a choice to forget it. “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” Isaiah 43:18. That sounds great to me! Sign me up! There it is in black and white, plain and simple, all spelled out, almost like a command. Not only do I have permission to forget the former things that the former me did, but I am not to dwell on the past. So from now on, if I start to have a memory replayed in my head at 3 a.m. when I woke up to the trash truck, I will not dwell on it. I will simply say outloud, “I don’t remember what the old me did and I will not allow myself to relive it and dwell on it.” And go back to sleep.

Peace to you as you forget your past.

~Jennifer

 

 

 

 

 

 

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/33465428@N02/17274545716″>Forget me not</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/”>(license)</a>