The Good Old Days

The older we get, the more we seem to talk about the past. I suppose it’s because we have more past to remember.

My grandparents loved to reminisce, always ending with “those were the good old days!” Funny how those “good old days” were filled with stories about living through the Great Depression, being very poor, daily eating beans without meat, using outhouses, and the happy list goes on.

Sometimes our memories weed out the bad things and make the past look like it was perfectly wonderful. Selective memory I suppose.

There’s nothing wrong with talking about the past, unless it keeps us from enjoying our lives today or steals our hope for the future. Good memories are blessings, but God has great things in store for us and we don’t want to miss them by living in the past.

We should spend more time looking forward to the future than in remembering the past.

“Don’t long for ‘the good old days.’ This is not wise.”

Ecclesiastes 7:10 (NLT)

“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

Philippians 3:13, 14 (NLT)

“But forget all that – it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new…”

Isaiah 43:18, 19a (NLT)

No matter what our past has been, God has a bright future for us.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a trip down memory lane, as long as we don’t stay there too long. The best is yet to come.