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.