To Remember…to Forget

One morning there came into my mind an old Sunday School song, one I had not sung or heard since the years of my youth. Where had it been in memory? How and why did it now come back to mind? We marvel at computers as if they were superhuman, but how much more marvelous is the mind of man and the limitless infinite Creator who made the mind of man! “The memory of an individual is written in indelible script in space and time,” Gustaf Stromberg, said. We sometimes forget names, forget many things, and then something brings them to mind. This perpetuation of impressions suggests that we not only ought to store our minds with truth, with useful knowledge, with wholesome and happy memories, but we ought to avoid storing them with evil, with low and vulgar thoughts or stories, with unworthy sights and scenes. We ought not to seek out the sordid side of life, for we never know when the mind will bring something back from memory, and it is sometimes more difficult to forget than it is to remember. This suggests also that parents should give children wholesome, happy memories; that mealtimes should be times of constructive, pleasant conversation and not for punishment or critical or unkind comment; that homes should leave happy memories that will always bring to mind thoughts of love and loyalty. This suggests also that we should study and learn and read out of the best books, and look for the best in literature, and not read cheap or smutty writings, not spend time on the filthiness that is too often put into print, or otherwise portrayed in pictures, which downgrade the minds and morals of men. Memory is wonderful, the mind of man is marvelous⎯the mind of God, and His purpose, more so. And, we [should] be as selective as we can in the memories we make for ourselves and for others. We should remember that it is sometimes more difficult to forget than it is to remember.