One of the trickiest parts of journalism is recognizing what to include in an article and what to leave out (and I have scores of first drafts to prove it). Maybe we should approach our own life stories with the same challenge.
There’s something poetic about Christmas and New Year’s being just a week apart. As December ends, we “remember” the gift of a Savior from years past. Then as January starts, we encourage ourselves to “forget” the trivial things of the past year and recommit to positivity moving forward.
Remembering. Forgetting. I’ve come to recognize these two as more than just cognitive functions — I see them as two balancing spiritual gifts made possible through the Holy Spirit’s tender impressions and our Savior’s infinite Atonement.
Alma the Younger found both gifts in his conversion experience, and it changed generations.
What Alma remembered and what he forgot
As Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah sought to destroy the church in Alma 36, God sent an angel to stop them. As a result, Alma “did remember all [his] sins and iniquities” (verse 13).
He recounts, “As I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world” (verse 17).
This memory encouraged Alma to cry out for mercy within his heart (see verse 18). “And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more” (verse 19).
Both gifts are in play here: Alma had God’s help to remember where he needed to repent and remember what his father had said about Christ, and it encouraged him to move forward through repentance. And by coming unto his Savior, Alma was granted the gift of forgetting so his forgiven sins didn’t sting anymore.
How might we see these gifts at the start of the year?
The gift of remembering
In the April 2022 Liahona, Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote: “The word ‘remember’ appears hundreds of times in the scriptures. In ancient Israel, ‘remember’ was used in many instances to help the Lord’s people to remember what He had done for them in times past. It was even more commonly used in the context of covenants the Lord made with His people.”
So, remembering is a way to hold on to God’s miracles and promises, and it’s a way for us to daily carry on the covenants we’ve made. If we didn’t have the gift of remembering, there would be nothing tying us to our baptism, our testimony, our experiences of seeing God’s hand in our lives, and so on.
The gift of forgetting
In a 2009 BYU talk, the late President Jeffrey R. Holland — then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — said: “The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future.”
President Holland continued: “Such dwelling on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right. It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
That’s why we need the gift of forgetting: so we’re not dwelling on the past with regret or with anger — we just recognize that because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can move forward. We remember Christ, and every other detail can be sifted away, because if it’s not connected to Him, it doesn’t matter nearly as much.
When we have to remember a difficult past, we look back not with bitterness or regret or sadness but with gratitude that it’s over and with reverent remembrance that through Christ, all wounds can be healed.
Looking back, moving forward
Through our Heavenly Father’s love, the Savior’s Atonement and the guidance of the Spirit, we can find both gifts of remembering and forgetting.
It is a blessing to look back, and it is a blessing to move forward. Remember Christ. Remember He’ll never forget you.
May we look back with peace and move forward with a smile. As we start this new year, let us — like the writers who skillfully choose what to include in a story — recognize what to take with us and what to leave behind.
— Joel Randall is a reporter for the Church News.
