STOP REMEMBERING WHAT GOD TOLD YOU TO FORGET

February 9, 2023

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. (26) And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.(Act 16:25-26)

In our last community talk, we discussed the scars that can tell the academy award-winning story of our life. Some of us can remember some vague incidents before age 5 or 6. But most of us begin to catalog meaningful things as life takes on a new definition. For instance, my first taste of domestic violence came at about six years old. My stepfather called me into the kitchen to show me how to control a woman/wife when they got out of line and didn’t listen. He was using a switch to chastise my mother for that teachable moment, for what reason, I do not know. As much as I hated what I saw then and over the years. I knew what I would never do to a female. This was only the tip of the iceberg of a bad dream that seemed never to end. There were tense meal times, violent arguments, and virtually no parental attendance at school, to name a few things that often take place in the life of a person raised in a domestic violence household.

When Paul and Silas were imprisoned, they became physically restrained but refused to be spiritually and emotionally restrained. A building may hold them, but humanity will not own them. When we reach out to harm or take another person’s life, our rage and insecurity return in time. You are REMEMBERING WHAT GOD TOLD YOU TO FORGET. What you are supposed to forget cannot hurt you today. Only you can hurt yourself.

What I have just shown all who may read this is one of the many reasons there is no respect for family and human life. As we age, specific memories begin to surface; we begin understanding the natural sources of our childish and adult insecurities. As males, we tend to remember events, while females reflect on the event and the emotions attached to them. However, for all of us, our emotions keep us from healing. John 5:6 ask the question, “Wilt thou be made whole?”