What was I going to do? 10/1/08

WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO?
After I finished my ablutions one morning I decided I would check my blood pressure. I was to see the Doctor tomorrow and for several weeks have been keeping track because of a change in medicines. I walk down the hall went into the kitchen and put some dishes into the dishwasher. Went on into the living room and folded a blanket I use in the evenings to keep the chill off and then put it away in the bedroom. As I returned to the living room, I stopped and asked myself; "what was I going to do"? I stood there perplexed and headed back down the hall and stopped into the office and told Jim; "I know I was going into the living room to do something but I just can’t remember"! He laughed! He always laughs at me! I stepped back into the bathroom to turn the light off and instead a light went on in my head. I had to return to the origin of the idea to pick up the scent of remembrance. I was going to check my blood pressure!
I have three books out of a set of "The Book of Knowledge, the Children’s Encyclopedia" which was copyrighted in the mid 1800's. I love reading old books from authors who have not been tainted from the muses of the 20th & 21st centuries. Out of the 15th volume under "How to Remember" is a section entitled, "Why old people remember best the things of long ago". I know this thought has crossed your minds many times. Well, I am going to give you a brief if not a compelling reason as to why. The explanation is that the latest impression you made was on a brain that was losing its ability of being impressed as well as it did when you were younger and you had a young, impressionable brain. Memory does not make our brains more impressionable. However, the great objective of education is to train the memory. So it seems that our brains although capable of handling lots of information is just not able to retain the latest information because material for impressions is not as impressionable. Well, enough of that. I am sure you get the picture.
Have you ever stood looking at that huge body of water and can’t think of what it is called. You see that huge wave filled with foam and blue water but can’t think of what it is called. You try to express what you are thinking and then someone says ocean and it all comes flooding back to you. That’s it! The ocean and the monstrous wave coming towards you. None of us are immune to this memory lapse condition. It can attack us at any age but it is more pronounced as we get older and more worrisome.
Jim experience a lapse of memory that the Doctor called "transient global amnesia". Jim’s memory lapse was with numbers. He couldn’t remember his pin number, phone number, address or even his birth date. After several hours it started coming back. My brother Lynn experienced a similar episode where he kept repeating certain things like a golf date. Sometimes even when we pray we just can’t think of what to say or even how to begin.
Believe me, God knew we would need help in this area. God made us, why shouldn’t He know. In Joshua 4:1-9 God had the Israelites set up the stones of remembrance. In Malachi 3:6-18 The book of remembrance was written to remind the people to fear and trust God. In Luke 22:19-20 Jesus used the bread and wine as a memorial to Him and what He did. In Psalm 119:11 it says to hide God’s word in our hearts so that we would remember His word. One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:26-28. When we can’t, the Holy Spirit can. Simple as that! The Spirit is there to help us in our weaknesses. He intercedes for us with groaning’s too deep for words. He knows our hearts and minds. We all have short memories, however, God never forgets His first love! Do you ever forget God? By Jane Ann Crenshaw 1/23/08