There will always be people to help, people in need of encouragement and hope, and people who have forgotten or don’t know God’s abundant love and grace. But may we always remember our first love. May we take time to marvel and grow in our love and appreciation for the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

I have to admit, there are some things I would rather not remember—difficulties in school, embarrassing moments in front of peers, misspoken words I wish I had never said, selfish things I did that grieved the Lord. Then there are marriage mistakes, parenting mistakes, and counseling mistakes. So many things I so wish I could forget.

There are also things I wish I could remember more vividly—the times as a child my grandmother read stories to me, my husband’s kindness when I deserved the opposite, all the fun times I had with my sons when they were little, or what I wrote on my grocery list that I left on the kitchen counter.

Have you ever considered how amazing (and loving!) it is that God made us creatures who can remember and forget? So much of our daily routines are based on memory and recall, yet we can forget or lose the fullest physical or emotional sense of pain that we experienced during a trauma in our past!

There are certain things God wants us to forget and some things He wants us to remember. He wants us to forget what is behind and strain towards what is ahead so we can press on towards the prize (Phil. 3:13). God wants us to forget wrongs done by others so we won’t keep a record because that would hinder us in loving them (1 Cor. 13:5).

God wants us to remember that we’ve been forgiven of past sins. Continually rehearsing our past mistakes tends to render us ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of Him (2 Pet. 1:9).

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