NEW BEGINNINGS

2012....a brand, spanking new year!! 

Don't you love new beginnings?!  I do.  A new year is like a fresh start, a "do-over" if you will.  A chance to make some needed changes, re-think our possibilities, take on new challenges, and just plain wipe the slate clean and start fresh.

We used to have an English teacher when I was in high school.  He was a quiet man, very learned and one that did not allow you to get away with anything.  But he was very respected and when he spoke, he was like E. F. Hutton....EVERYONE listened!  Whenever he got ready to give a pop test (in case they don't give those anymore, those are tests you probably were not prepared for, that he just "popped" on you at the last minute, usually with only 2 minutes left in the class) he would say "Now....get out a nice....clean....sheet of paper."  I always think of that when I think of new beginnings. 

Our new year can be like that nice clean sheet of paper.  No blemishes.  No bad marks. 

God is the God of new beginnings.  He loves to wipe our slates clean and give us clean ones to try again.  He is all about forgetting the past and looking toward the future. 


"Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old.  Behold I will do a new thing..." Is 43: 18, 19

"but this one thing I do...forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which lie ahead I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ." Phil. 3: 13, 14

"Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."  Ephesians 4: 22, 23

Today as we embark upon a new year, may we lay aside all that hindered us and weighed us down in 2011 and begin anew today.  May we not hold on to past hurts, past grudges, past failures, but may we LET THEM ALL GO and move forward, trusting God to light our way so that HIS light might shine through us to all of those around us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!