In With The Old
Known for their wisdom and memory, elephants are the
intelligent giants of the animal kingdom.
These beautiful creatures truly are at the top of the food chain with no
predators except man. Of course being at
the top means a long life span, as a matter of fact, elephants can live up to
50-70 years. Unlike humans though…female
elephants know, with age, comes honor. Females such as mothers, daughters and
aunts will live in herds together with the oldest female being their leader. There’s no doubt that wisdom and memory go
hand and hand, which is why, the eldest female is so worthy to follow.
It’s amazing what all we can learn from animals. Like when you see an older couple and you
wonder what their secret is to a long and happy marriage. Is it because they were perfect for each
other never having any fights? Were they
always romantic? Maybe they were high
school sweethearts. What memories do
they have? Maybe they just made wiser
decisions all along.
No. As I said, wisdom
and memory go hand and hand. Those who
are wise in their marriage use their memories to enhance their characteristics
and wisdom. When they encounter life’s
blessings or problems they learn from it and move on and earnestly strive not
to forget the lesson learned. As the old
saying goes, “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
The foolish on the other hand, will not learn from blessings
or mistakes they’ve made. Instead, a
wife may hold a grudge against her husband when a problem is pointed out in
their relationship, rather than looking honestly at the truth and changing
it. Or if she does change, for the time
being, she in no way keeps it in her memory to escape failure again and again.
So how can we be a
wise wife to better our marriage?
BY PRAYING
We can look at King David
as a great example who made several mistakes. Mistakes/sins that cost him the life of his
baby by Bathsheba. David was utterly
grief stricken after God told him the punishment for his sins. He fasted and prayed fervently in hopes of
changing God’s mind. We should be praying
that our love for our husband grows stronger no matter what our marriage may be
going through… to work through the problems, if at all possible. God will give you strength to overcome sin
and the consequences of your sins. Remember David was still considered a man
after God’s own heart even after all he had done.
BY LEARNING
You have two choices
when it comes to memories. They can
either cripple you like Judas’ betrayal of Jesus or inspire you to be a better
person like Paul. You may be thinking
about that terrible argument you had with your husband about money, sex or the
kids. If it’s something you can change to
better your marriage then do it. Why not
learn from it rather than dwelling on the memories of the fight and becoming
more bitter?
BY MOVING ON
Everyone would love to forget bad memories but regardless
they help us to grow and become a wiser person.
King David could have become overwhelmed to the point of taking his own
life but instead he chose to move on.
After the baby died there was no more that could be done. Incessantly dwelling on these horrific memories
of his sins would have hindered his service to God, his family and his
people. Maybe it’s not our own sin; sometimes
it’s the memory of someone else’s sin that needs to be forgiven for us to move
on. Pray for God to help you let go.
BY LISTENING
If pictures are worth a thousand words think of all the
wisdom that can be told from the memory of our elders. As our memories and wisdom grows, we would do
well to remember, that although we may learn a lot from animals, more
importantly, we can learn so much more from those who walked before us.
In with the old!
1 Corinthians 15:2
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye
keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless ye have believed in vain.
