Forgetting ----

Strangely -- it seems that sometimes we have a tendency to remember the things we should forget, and forget the things we should remember.  The Apostle Paul admonished us in Philippians 3:13-14:
     "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

As we look to the coming Lord's Day, let us heed the advice given in this little paragraph I read in an old Preacher's Magazine of my husband's, entitled "Things to Forget".

"If you would increase happiness --
     Forget your neighbor's faults.
     Forget all the slander you ever heard.
     Forget the fault-finding, and give but little thought to the cause which provoked it.
     Forget the peculiarities of your friends, and only remember the good points which make you fond of them.
     Forget all personal quarrels or history you may have heard by accident, and which, if repeated, would seem worse than they are.
     Blot out, as far as possible, all disagreeables of life.  They will come, but will only grow larger when you remember them; and the constant thought of the acts of meanness -- or worse still -- malice, will tend to make you more familiar with them.
     Start out with a clean sheet today, and write upon it only those things which are lovely and lovable."

     "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."