when all we remember is the bad
Anxiety has a way of blocking out anything that is good or rational. It causes us to fixate on every bad scenario and any what-if that may come our way. It can become a cloud that blocks out the sun, causing us to only see the hard right in front of us instead of the good all around us.
But you don’t have to struggle with an anxiety disorder to get a clouded view. Though we have the blessing of long-term memory, often we settle for the short-term. But, we don’t have to stay that way. How do we help ourselves remember the good things?
I have been guilty in the past of reading the stories of the children of Israel throughout the book of Exodus, drawing my own assumptions about their continued trip-ups, and shaking my head at their apparent dimwittedness. They were witnesses, with their own eyes, to miracles and the mighty hand of God throughout their life. They saw the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, manna provided daily, and fresh water from a rock. But yet, at times they seemed to disregard God’s love and care for them. How could they so quickly turn from a God that clearly loved and protected them?
In Psalm 106 the author writes,
Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise Him enough? – Psalm 106:2
He begins with the truth that all that the Lord has done is far and away more than we could even list or name.
However, the following thirty-eight verses of the forty-eight verse Psalm lists all the ways that Israel has, in fact, forgot “the glorious miracles of the Lord” and found numerous ways to not “praise Him enough.”
Psalm 106:6 says,
Our ancestors in Egypt were not impressed by the Lord’s miraculous deeds. They soon forgot his many acts of kindness to them. – Psalm 106
The rest of my article is being featured over on the Good Day blog with Candace Cofer! There I lay out 9 different ways the Israelites disregarded the goodness of God and 9 different ways we can learn from it!
