The capacity to remember

When growing up as teenagers, my brother and sister and I used to hear a very active and busy senior relative occasionally say, “Don’t forget to remind me so I don’t forget” (an event, a meeting, something she needed to shop for). While it was said with a touch of humor, I was beginning to learn in Sunday School that each of us is a reflection of the one divine Mind. Each of us is complete, reflecting all the qualities of God, including intelligence and self-government. We all have the capacity to remember what we should.

Someone once said to me that true memory is affection. We remember what we love, whether it’s past events, other people, or places visited. Increasing our affection for God, the divine Mind, inevitably increases our capacity to remember what is good and to express our God-given ability to think and multitask when there’s a lot to do.

One day recently was particularly crammed full of things that I had to get done in a short period of time – from errands to the post office, to the bank to make a deposit, to church to check the mail, back to the post office, and finally home for a quick lunch. I lost my checkbook in the process, and it seemed too easy to lose track of things.

But I stopped the momentary confusion and countered it with the fact that there is one infinite, divine Mind, all-knowing and ever conscious. And that man, including each of us, reflects that all-intelligent divine Mind. Those were such refreshing thoughts. As I realized to some degree that we are each the expression of the all-knowing divine Mind, I could feel the anxiety disappear. It was good to regain the sense that we cannot lose our inherent capacity.

As I turned to God for help, the fresh thought came to me that I, as the expression of God, could not lose my ability to think clearly, even though it seemed I had so many things to do in such a short time. I thought of how Christ Jesus was able to keep a clear head even when crowds of people were milling about him, either for instruction or for healing. A statement from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy came to mind: “Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love” (“Pulpit and Press,” p. 3). It was refreshing to be reminded that our capacity to think, even when things seem to be going fast and furious, could not be lost.

Putting aside all my human efforts to find the checkbook gave me the freedom to go deeper in realizing the supremacy of divine Mind. I also recognized the inherent spiritual capacity of the man and woman of God’s creating “to think and act rightly.” We cannot lose our God-bestowed spiritual capacity to recall right things. This led me to look under the front seat of the car again, where I found the checkbook.

Each one of us has spiritual sense and capacity. It’s God-given. As we continue to cultivate our affection for God as divine Mind, then we will not forget to remember that He is the source of all intelligence, knowledge, and capacity.

Acknowledging the supremacy of divine Mind – and our inherent ability to reflect Mind’s intelligence, clarity, and capacity – enhances our “power to think and act rightly,” because God has not forgotten His bestowal of intelligence on each one of us.