Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 21
May 1, 1969
NUMBER 1, PAGE 5b

The Good Old Days

Harold Turner

Some people will nearly wear you out describing in detail the virtues of "the good old days." To assign foolishness to every effort exerted in the direction of recalling the past would be foolishness within itself; but, on the other hand, I wonder how many people completely deceive themselves by continuing in this state of mind often to such extents that the present and future seem to hold little significance for them, or at least not what they would hold.

Solomon said, "Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this" (Eccl. 7:10).

We have here a bit of wisdom that needs application. The human mind is many times a tool to its own destruction, and to dwell at length on the past and spend endless hours groaning of the advantages of days gone by is nothing short of the biggest waste of time ever.

There is always present the tendency to remember the pleasant and dismiss from recall the unpleasant. The reason for this is obvious: one is pleasant and the other is not. This alone should elicit caution along these lines, and then when we consider the ability to forget, as well as the possibility of distortion of events — even in our own minds — conjoined with the fact that when we were in "the good old days" we felt about the "then" just like we now feel about the "now," the whole thing seems kinda futile and useless.

What makes "the good old days" so much better now than they were then? If perhaps you think they really were all that much better, consider that the present will one day be "the good old days."

The same attitude which prompts in a man now an exaggerated concern for the past will prompt in him the same feeling tomorrow for today, and generally that attitude is just simply an unwillingness to face squarely the issues of present and future. Since success in life is predicated upon one's willingness to really tackle life and struggle with the day by day problems and events, then the one who lives in "the good old days" will never be successful.

The closest to a perfect situation you will ever get is solving a problem. You might try by dwelling upon a perfect past, but that accomplishes really nothing. There ain't no such animal.

— 5405 Volder, Fort Worth, Texas 76114