Do you have a favorite word? I have quite a few. They move around on my top favorites list depending on how I’m feeling and what area of my life needs the most work. Of all my “words” the one that began the list and remains on it is REMEMBER.
Can you imagine life without memory? Without memory we would have no history, no past, which also means we would have no identity. Without memory we would have no vision either, which means we would have no future.
If we remember, we don’t forget things.
What I choose to remember consistently and profoundly impacts my life. I believe that being conscious and intentional about remembering essential things is crucial to becoming who we are meant to be.
Here are some of the things I’m striving to remember this week:
Smile.
I am part of a grand tapestry. The product of generations of goodness and hard work, what I do now is important and will influence the direction of many generations that follow.
How I treat others is the most accurate measure of my character. I can be patient, kind, merciful, empathetic. People matter most.
President Lincoln said this in his second inaugural address:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
I think those are good words to remember and live by. It is how I want to live: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives [me] to see the right, let [me] strive on to finish the work [I] am in.”
And on a lighter note, I need to remember what I was going to make for dinner tonight!
