My Life on Paper

Do you have keepsakes from your past? I have several containers in my house that are full of interesting papers, baby books, reminders from when I was younger, pages torn from magazines that contain articles and stories written by my loved ones—and the list goes on and on. Recently, I opened the containers to sort through them and give them a semblance of order. What fun it was to see letters written to my then fiancé the summer we were apart, the small Bible my husband received at his nurse’s pinning, and my handprint in clay from when I was in first grade. Closing the containers, I gathered up my diaries and journals and carried them downstairs to read through them. While holding these journals and diaries, the thought entered my mind, This is my life on paper. The concept startled me but carried a lot of meaning.

The words I wrote, from when I was eleven years old until recently, speak about events that happened to me or others, along with feelings and emotions.

My life—on paper. Not everyone keeps a journal or diary.

For some, it is stress releasing and therapeutic to write their thoughts down. For others, it is a chore that they would rather not do. My life on paper.

What if I tear out a page that holds a memory of something I wish I had done differently? It is no longer in my journal. Is it now gone from my memory? If it would only be that simple. Handwritten and typed thoughts can be destroyed simply by erasing or deleting what was once there, even by burning the paper. But are those thoughts truly gone? I am reminded of God, who is the perfect One to delete the parts of our lives we wish had never been “written.” He has promised to delete them forever if we but ask Him. Satan desires to continue to keep us down with our past “life on paper,” but we can choose to give those life happenings and regrets to God for His power to destroy, and He remembers them no more.

Let God have your past.

After all, He died for you!

Valerie Hamel Morikone