This post is written by my first guest writer, Sis Audrey. The post is unedited and speaks from her heart to yours. As you can well see, Sis Audrey is a very passionate writer. Thank you, Sis Audrey, for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. God bless you!

First, thank you Sister Jackie for this opportunity to share my thoughts on your blog.  In pondering what to write, two thoughts came to my mind, one about building memories and another about bumps in the road, and while meditating on how these were connected in a fashion  to write about, it came clear to me that while building memories in life we often come upon bumps in the road.  So I want to share my thoughts about “Building Good Memories in Spite of Hitting Bumps in the Road” along the Journey of Life.

Truth is, is that in life, we will have both good and bad memories.  And everyone wants their life to be full of more good memories than bad ones.  But most of the time we cannot experience only things that bring about only good memories, because “life happens” and we will have unexpected and undesired bumps in the road-of-life, situations of trial and sorrow.  But it all depends on how we process the bumps in the road as to how it affects us.  So in looking at how our memories affect us, both the good memories and the bad memories, we can make our own choices on “how” we allow them to affect us.  For no one wants bad things to happen in their life, but, when they happen, we all want to figure out how to move “forward” from them, so that they do not hinder us and keep us stuck in a bad situation.  But, I believe that looking at the bad memories, the undesired things that have happened in our life, can help us to have a better response to similar situations that may occur in the future, and possibly prevent the same mistakes from happening again. 

For me, the scripture that encourages me, expresses knowing how to move forward no matter whether the times are good or bad is Philippians 4:12. And although I love the KJV, to me, the Amplified Bible says it plainly “I know how to get along and live humbly [in difficult times], and I also know how to enjoy abundance and live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret [of facing life], whether well-fed or going hungry, whether having an abundance or being in need.” We do not necessarily need help in enjoying the good times and being able to move forward, but we need help in how to move forward from the bad times. 

My example of understanding how to handle the bad times, is in looking at hitting a bump in the road.  Out of nowhere, while riding along, you can hit a pothole or a bump in the road that appeared so suddenly that you didn’t have time to react to avoid it, and you may have felt a sense of panic or fear from the impact.  That is how trouble often shows up in our life.  And when you hit the bump in the road, it hit so hard that you may have thought that you had severely damaged your car, but you were able to keep driving.  And when you got the car inspected, you found out that it was only knocked out of alignment and easy to repair.  And to me, that is how troubles can leave us, not necessarily severely damaged, just knocked out of alignment. 

Did we remember to call on God to help us at the moment of impact?  For He can hear not only the faintest cry for help, He can hear the un-uttered cry for help.  And, upon reflection, this memory can help us in the future, that when we unexpectedly hit sudden bumps in the road of life, undesirable situations, that we can learn from the memory, that maybe there is something in our lives that simply needs re-alignment, so that we can move forward and continue on our journey successfully and turn what could have been a bad memory into something good in its outcome.  For in re-aligning ourselves, we simply correct our positioning, our thoughts, our outlook in a situation.  Did we remember that God helped us to fix the situation?  He led us every step of the way, for He is Faithful ALL the time?  For I believe that God comes and moves on our behalf when we need help even when we don’t call on Him, for He sees our every need.  But, I also believe that He comes and moves sooner when we do call on Him to give us His “peace” in the situation. 

So my prayer for you and me, is that we learn to more effectively use our memories, the good and the bad, to help us process undesired situations that may occur in our life, the bumps in the road of life.  That we may process the current situation and be able to not let it hinder us, but reflect on how we came through the last time.  For God will help us in every situation when we look to Him instead of looking at every bump in the road as a possible total devastation in our lives. I pray that we are encouraged to not let the bumps in the road of our lives, the undesirable situations of our life’s journey, keep us from moving forward, and only leave us with bad memories. 

But, that we may choose to learn from them of how to continue to move forward in spite of the bumps in the road, making good memories of from being able to say, that I’ve hit this bump before, and I will not let panic or fear overtake me, for my memory serves me to know that I can move forward from it, for I remember that I learned how to not let it stop or hinder me from moving forward, but just to check my alignment, because we first called upon God to help us.  I pray that our God continues to Bless, Keep, and Help us through every situation in our Journey of Life, In Jesus Sweet Name, AMEN!.