Engrave It In Stone

Last week, after looking through Mom's Bible again, I was reminded of how important it is to remember the good times and let go of the bad times.  I've told this before, but this particular Bible was given to Mom on January 1, 1987.  It was the year she became "Grandma."  She carried this Bible for the next eleven years, through a cancer diagnosis and treatment, through the loss of her youngest son, and through four years of cancer returning with numerous treatments.  But she didn't write about the bad times, she consistently wrote about faith and trust and answered prayer.

Joshua chapter 4 tells us about memorial stones:

And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

I don't know where I originally heard this story, and I couldn't find the author, but it applies today.

Two friends were walking in a desert and they got into an argument. Finally, one of them became so angry that he slapped the other in the face. The one who was slapped stopped, bent down, and wrote in the sand: 

 “Today my best friend slapped me in the face.”

Later they came upon an oasis and stopped to bathe, when suddenly the one who was slapped began to sink in the mire. His friend pulled him to safety. Immediately recuperating, the slapped/ saved one found a large stone on which he inscribed: 

“Today my best friend saved my life!” 

On inquiring why he wrote one in sand and the other in stone, he answered: “When someone hurts you you should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for you, you must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

We cannot avoid people who hurt us in life - it's going to happen.  Sometimes even our best friend slaps us in the face.  But we can choose how we react.

What will you engrave in stone today?