Selective Forgetfulness.

Does a maiden forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments?

Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number. Jeremiah 2:32 (NIV)

After so many months daydreaming about and planning for my wedding, do you think I’d forgotten anything?

Not. A. Thing.

Why? Because the day mattered to me enough to make every aspect of the event a priority.

I'd refused to forget.

Ask me Donny Osmond's birthday and I can tell you. (December 9, 1957)

Ask me where I was on 9/11 2001 and I can tell you. (At home, educating a couple of my kids when a friend called to say, “I know you never have the TV on during the day, but you need to turn it on now.”)

Ask me the exact time each of my 4 children was born or when Bath and Body Works will hold their annual #candleday sale and I can tell you..

But ask me to share the specific truth God revealed during my Bible reading this morning and … I just might draw a blank.

Behind that, I’d forgotten God, the Author—the source of life and spiritual rest and wisdom and peace. The very reason I made effort to read and remember His word.

Selective forgetfulness.

Maybe it was the mindless scrolling through social media afterward that caused the spiritual truth to dissipate like a puff of vapor off a cup of hot coffee. (because far be it from me to forget coffee each morning.) ☕️

Maybe it the gazelle-like intensity with which I set out to write afterward that ran my brain into the ground or the troubles of the day that choked the truth right out of my memory.

If something matters to me or satisfies a felt need, I don’t forget. While keeping a writer's planner is a great discipline, there are things which hold such importance that it wouldn't matter if I'd written them down or not.

When I do forget, it’s not necessarily that I don’t care. Overwhelmed scheduled and demands are often to blame for mental lapse.

But what does God forget?

My sin. Your sin

And what does God remember?

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:15

As one who spends her days wrangling words into sentences and nearly editing herself into a coma, I can't help but notice the intentional inclusion of an exclamation mark—I will not forget you!—a passionate promise that would be wise to etch into our hearts.

To know we are cherished enough to be remembered shapes our soul into a thing of beauty like little else can.

Like a mindful bride on her wedding day, God doesn't—and will never—forget us, and He is selective about his forgetfulness of our sin.

See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands. Isaiah 49:16

When has God made you aware of your selective forgetfulness?

How does it help you to know that he is selective in his forgetfulness of your sin?

Thanks for reading! If you found today's post inspirational and know others who would benefit, please share.

Until next time,

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✏️Here's a link to the talk I gave in April with a dear friend of mine. Shining Your Light in Brokenness has received over 130 views!! May it encourage you in seasons of hardship and realign your perspective.