Out to Pastor: The Key to Life Is Forgetting the Right Things

By Dr. James L. Snyder

The thing that has concerned me as I have aged was about forgetting things. How could I remember everything when I was crowding my brain with all kinds of new things?

In this regard, there is no comparison between The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and myself. I have a problem remembering, and her problem is forgetting. She can’t forget anything. She remembers things that I don’t think ever happened. How she does that is above my pay scale.

My concern has always been that I would forget things I needed to remember and it would cause a lot of difficulty in my relationships. My biggest concern is forgetting the names of people, especially relatives. I can never figure out why some people have such weird names, hard to remember.

I have concluded that the key to a good life is knowing what to forget and what to remember. If I can master this, I will not have any problems.

Number one on my list of not forgetting is The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. That is the hard one. I must remember all of the right things regarding her and forget all the other things.

I have to make a list of things to forget and then a list of things to remember.

The list of things to remember is pretty long, including her birthday, our anniversary, our children’s birthdays and their anniversaries, and our grandchildren’s birthdays. Along with that list are the names of all of those people.

If I had charge of things, which I don’t, I would tattoo the names of our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren on their foreheads along with their birthday. That sure would help me a lot.

Another thing on the list to remember was everything she said to me. I can’t tell you how many times she has asked, “Don’t you remember what I said yesterday?”

Now, the problem with that question is that she said so much yesterday it is tough for me to remember anything she said yesterday.

My list of things to remember gets longer every year.

But the things to forget could be even longer. I sometimes get the two lists confused, and boy, do I get into trouble.

The biggest challenge I have is to forget every time she is wrong. I don’t know what it is about me, but these things I can never forget. She’s not wrong often, but when she is, I take great delight in that. I can’t reveal my delight to her in any fashion, but it’s there.

Knowing what to forget and what to remember has been an important key in my life. The big problem here is that I have a hard time choosing what to remember and what to forget.

I couldn’t help but think of what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:13-15, “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.”

Forgetting the right things makes room for me to remember the right things. If I’m going to press forward in my life I must forget some things in the past.

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Dr. James L. Snyder lives in Ocala, FL with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Telephone 1-352-216-3025, email jamessnyder51@gmail.com, website www.jamessnyderministries.com.