"CHANGE  OUR  MEMORY"
Luke 10: 30-37
 
We're all familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho is robbed and beaten. Two other travelers pass by without offering assistance, but a third traveler goes out of his way to see that the injured man receives the care he needs. With these thoughts in mind, I want to share with you some thoughts, in part,  from the "Olivet Cumberland Presbyterian Church Newsletter, September 21, 2009."
      "A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash on the closeline.  'That laundry is not clean,' she said. 'She doesn't know how to wash correctly.  Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.'
    Her husband looked on, but remained silent.  Every time the young woman's neighbor would hang out her wash to dry, she would make the same comments.
    This went on for nearly a month.  Then one day the young woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line.  She said to her husband, 'Look, she has finally learned how to wash correctly.  I wonder who taught her this?'
    The husband said, 'I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.' 
    Jesus said,  "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?... First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly...." (Matthew 7: 3,5)
    
We cannot change the events of the past,  but we can 'Change Our Memory" of the past and, in doing so, we change our future. The past is always heavy with sorrow, but we can choose to remember how those who loved us helped us get beyond our sorrow. Happiness can be discovered in the love we know and in “the freedom to give and take what has been there all along.”

What sorrow from your past are you carrying with you? A failed relationship? A lost job opportunity? A bad investment decision? You can change this memory by recalling who helped you recover and get on with your life.
 
><))):> In "HIS" Service
Bro. Roy

We're all familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho is robbed and beaten. Two other travelers pass by without offering assistance, but a third traveler goes out of his way to see that the injured man receives the care he needs.

The most obvious meaning of the parable is that we should help others in need. This moral lesson challenges our complacency, and it should. But we might also remember this parable with gratitude by recalling those who have helped us when we were in need. We, too, have been injured on the road of life, emotionally as well as physically. We know suffering and sorrow. But others have gone out of their way to help us recover.

In the gospel account, however, Jesus surprises his listeners by identifying a neighbor not as someone we should help, but as a person who helps others. We need to change our memory of being hurt by others with the memory of being helped by others. Without knowing who are neighbors are, we can choose to be a good neighbor.
 
It is possible, the scripture tells us, to move beyond our sorrows and anger;  'To clean our own windows.' Being grateful for the love we have known may help us become more loving;  by "Changing Our Own Memory."