A Month of Thankfulness: Day 23

Day 23: I'm thankful for memories. Last night as I pondered what I would write about today I began to think how I'm thankful for the good memories I have about so many things. My friends from schooldays. Meeting, dating and marrying Benny. Our kids in all the different stages of their lives. The births of our beautiful grandbabies. My parents. Benny's parents. In-laws. All kinds of family...close and distant. Places I've been. Things I've seen or heard. So many memories stored in our minds that we can't even remember all of them. At first I wanted to just say I'm thankful for "good" memories...because I have some bad ones also and just didn't feel very thankful for them. But then I recalled a verse from Bible study last night. One that you all will find familiar. Romans 8:28...."And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." There are some bad memories that do serve a purpose I know. For example, as a young child I was helping Mama clean up the kitchen one day. I was bringing all the dirty dishes to the sink for her. I saw the cornbread pan sitting on top of the stove and reached out and picked it up, only to instantly drop it! I looked down at my hand and saw an ugly red blister perhaps half an inch wide and two inches long quickly developing in the palm of my hand! My hand was still small and the clear, raised blister covered almost half of my palm. I remember crying and crying! And being confused! WHY had that pan been so blazing hot? Dinner had long been over! Mama apologized and apologized for it. She explained that she had made extra cornbread for something (maybe dressing?) while we were finishing up dinner and had just taken it up and put the empty HOT pan on the stove right before I started picking up the dirty dishes. Now even after close to fifty years I am very careful to try and remember to check the temperature of a baking dish before I pick it up! Just because of the memory of that terrible burn! Our memory is such a necessary thing in life. I don't know that I've seen anything that makes me much sadder than someone who has lost their memory through either disease or some kind of trauma. It's something we all hope to escape I think. So for today, I'm thankful for memories. Good and bad. Happy and sad. I'm glad my memory is still working. Psalm 30:4 "Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness." May God bless you, Marilyn