52 Blessings Week 4: Fresh Starts

I love the week between Christmas and New Year's day. I normally store up vacation so that I have a great break at a great time. And it's the time of resolutions and thinking about what you want the next year to be like. And new calendar pages. I really like blank calendars. It's a shame that they get so crowded and cluttered so soon! Today I'm really thinking about what a blessing it is that we get to start over.

I stepped on a scale. And immediately regretted it. But the fact is that the number that shows up there is something that is in my power to change. I should know. I've done it over and over and over and over...but this time could be different. I'm not doomed to the same mistakes (although they seem nearly impossible to break out of) because I get to start over. And in any one of a thousand other areas where I've messed up, I get to start over from where I am. Make a change. Try something different. Make a difference. It's discouraging if I look at how many times I've had to start over, but it does not change the fact that I am so lucky to have a new day, a fresh calendar, to try it again.

Isaiah 43
16 This is what the LORD says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,

17 who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

18 "Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.

19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.