selective memory

June 10, 2013 12:02 pm

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. (2 Corinthians 1:5)

Dear Reader, if you are the kind of person who always sees the donut not the hole, we’re happy for you! The world needs you so much!!! However, if you don’t belong to that minority group, feel invited to stay with us for the next several lines.

You might have not noticed until now that even in real hardships the Lord is giving you reasons for joy and so many proofs of His concern for you. He’s sending His Angels, often in the person of actual people, who for instance will tell you on the phone: “Where are you? In a shop? is there a mirror anywhere near? Come closer to it. What can you see? A smile? See, that’s not so difficult.”

And yet among many memory disorders, apart from total amnesia, there’s a very dangerous disease of “selective memory”. It chooses from the whole day only the things that went wrong. The dinner was too late. Even though you should be grateful that it took place at all, and you all could gather and have it together (which is not so obvious, if someone in the family is ill or away). 

Of course one should neither ignore real suffering, but try to help it, nor neglect problems that need solution. But optimism brings us closer to God’s view of things. The lives of the most cheerful people I’ve ever met were not all roses. But when they checked the balance of each part of the day, they were always “in the black,”, and not “in the red”. They could notice even the smallest things that worked out well. And they were also able to appreciate other people’s efforts in a similar way.

Margaret

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