Memories

Did you make any resolutions or goals for the new year of 2014?  I actually did not think about making new goals this new year, but I made several last year.  One of my goals for 2013 was to make a “journal quilt”, creating one eight inch square block for every week of the year.  This idea didn’t go quite as smoothly as my goal of reading the whole Bible in 2013, but it will get finished eventually, Lord willing.  I have had to change up my original idea a little bit, including the dimensions of the final quilt (fifty-two quilt blocks is not an ideal number for a rectangle).  I’ve enjoyed seeing the vast array of colors, patterns, and embellishments that are in the finished quilt blocks.  Each one reminds me of something I did or felt in 2013, bringing back floods of beautiful memories.

Our memories are gifts from God.  We smile, laugh, roll our eyes, shake our heads, blush, frown, and cry over those memories.  They are really the stories of our lives and relationships with God – things from which we can learn much.  We all have some bad memories and things we wish we could simply forget ever happened.  However, it is often the most painful memories that are also the most valuable.  When one person is hurt by another, remembering is part of the healing process, the road to forgiveness and hope for the future.

Forgiveness really is not possible until you are willing to open up those awful memories and acknowledge that yes, they really did happen and hurt.  You have to choose forgiveness – choose to let go of all the bad things that happened, let God heal your heart, and move on, regardless of whether or not the person who offended asks for forgiveness.  The person that bitterness really hurts the most is the person who is bitter.   It’s only when you chose to forgive that you can truly enjoy and have hope for the future in this life.  I know that I am looking forward to all the exciting new things of 2014.