A Healthy Reflection

" Shut out all of your past except that which will help you weather your tomorrows.

- William Osler, Canadian physician



Remembering the good times, learning from the bad

Memory can be used for good or for evil. If you use your past as a source of learning, it's worth remembering. If, however, all you do is mull over your mistakes and punish yourself for your failures, it's a waste of time. Rehashing failure can paralyze you in mortal fear of making another mistake, which, of course, just makes the feeling worse and practically guarantees future letdowns. The key to making meaningful changes is to pay more attention to the future than to the past. Have you ever noticed that the best athletes also have the shortest and most selective memories? Instead of dwelling on a missed shot or a flawed dive, they concentrate on making corrections and getting the next one right. It's as if the failed attempt never happened. It's forgotten and they don't fear trying again. If you mess up, even in an epic, life-altering way, work hard to leave it behind and concentrate on the possibilities yet to come. Tomorrow is much brighter when it's not smeared with a fixation on yesterday."

This is so true, isn't it? We tend to dwell on the "bad" and forget that the "bad" things were allowed in order to develop character. We are given choices all through life. When we are little, we don't know what to choose as we depend on our parents. If they weren't loving and nurturing towards us, chances are we learned to make "bad" choices due to low self-esteem. The Bible tells us to forget the past, but if the past is still driving us to get parental love we never had, then how can we forget? It's best to face the pain of the past and get over the past. Facing things is far more healing than ignoring or denying them. Jesus came to seek and to save those that are lost. If you seem to be lost in your past, you can always go to God who is more than willing and able to help and heal all wounds. He was wounded for us, bruised for us--everything He did, He did for us. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities..." A wound is a surface injury that bleeds from the inside. Once it's stitched, it heals, sometimes leaving a scar. A bruise, however, is something different. It is a wound underneath the skin; it bleeds inwardly. It also takes time to heal. In the same way, emotional hurts are like bruises inside, an "underneath injury" that needs the touch of God to heal. You can't really forget the past until you are healed of its wounds and bruises.
By giving them to God, you not only get healed, but you begin to develop a relationship with Him that no mere man can equate or replace.