Remember The Wonder Years?
I know I found it boring most of the time. The only reason I watched it was because it came on after or before Full House. Regardless, I watched it.
The main thing I remember about it more than anything today is that it was about a man who, maybe in his thirties, narrated his whole life from age 12 to age 17. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can barely remember what I did yesterday, let alone when I was 12.
I remember certain events, but not “detailed” events that I could make a show out of it. If asked to make a movie about my life, a lot of it would probably be fiction, which would be great because I could write out a lot of the bad things that happened along the way.
People always try to remember their earliest memory. I can barely recall mine. I was in kindergarten and a boy had taken my sticky wall ball. Don’t start laughing. You know what I am talking about. They were these sticky ball things that you got in cereal boxes back when they gave good toys in cereal. You throw them against the wall and they roll down it.
Anyway, I remember taking mine to school one morning, despite my mom telling me not too. I was in the library with some kids and the next thing you know, it was gone. I accused this kid of stealing it, swearing up and down to the teacher that he had it.
Knowing myself now and how easily i misplace items, I could have just left it somewhere. I probably owe that kid an apology.
I remember that even detailed. Other events, I only remember flashes of them. Not full details. I think that is why I watched the wonder years, because he remembered every detail of his childhood. Most of it consisted of getting the girl in the end. Which reminds me of another show I watch frequently, How I Met Your Mother?
Another detailed show about events leading up to the moment this Guy meets his children’s mother. Every fine detail of his life AND his best friends lives. This better be one heck of a woman. I keep hoping that he meets her so I can stop watching, but I am hooked. TV marketing at its finest.
It seems that we tend to remember the best moments in life rather than the worst. As if we tend to forget what had happened previously and we fall back into our same mistakes.
I know that in these shows (and I know that they are just shows) that negative things happen, but they always end with a positive.
I remember a lot of great things in my life, but I also remember a lot of bad things as well.
The past is there to teach us. I wonder if they could make a show called the The Sh*tty Years or How I Lost Your Mother. Maybe if someone had done this, I would not have made the mistakes I had made in life. Like dating someone five times thinking every time, “it’ll be different!” Geez, you think someone would have learned by then.
I was talking to my Dad today. I won’t lie; I love it when he calls without a purpose. Just to say, “Hi.” If you knew me and my father's relationship in the past, you would understand why. Anyway, he and my mother went to Delaware to visit my little brother since he was having back surgery. Keep in mind, my parents are divorced. So the fact that they are traveling together is a miracle in itself. I would have thought I would have seen the end of the world before that ever happened.
When my dad would talk about my mom and his marriage, he never really said anything bad. He always just told us that they had a great marriage and that he loved my mother deeply. He said things just didn’t work out. Well, my dad told me today that he remembers all the reasons it didn’t work out.
I couldn’t help but laugh. My father was reminded why he and my mother had divorced and vice versa. I wish I could have taken a few plane trips to remind myself a few years ago.
It shows that the past holds the keys to living life. These individuals in the shows are telling their stories so that others can learn from their failures that ended up in success.
I guess you could look at it in two ways, though you keep failing, in the end there is success. You could also look at it as, “hey, don’t do it this way.”
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul talks about how “our fathers (1)” who were just like us, baptized through water (the red sea), were not found pleased by God. They got tired of being set free and actually complained and tried to do things their way instead of Gods.
Paul said that these events should be set as an example (6) and we should learn to follow God’s way and not our own.
I heard a Pastor preach on Father’s Day. He was mainly preaching to the men of the Church who were fathers, but I listened anyway seeing as I plan on being a father someday.
He was talking about when your children ask you certain things about your life. When they ask you about the bad things you did, you should tell them. Let them know you did tried drugs. You had used to drink like a fish. You were addicted to porn. However, let them know the consequences of your actions.
It is by YOUR past that they will learn if you can truly look them in the eye and tell them that you regret it. Now if you gloat about it around your friends and they hear you, they are going to know you don’t regret it and think that it will be cool to do the same thing.
Learn from your parents past. Learn from the Israelites past. It is there to teach us the WRONG way of doing things.
Maybe if Christians had a sitcom of the Old Testament, they would know how to live for God better.
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