A new journal, a fresh start

I'm a person who loves fresh starts and new beginnings. I'm thankful that, in addition to new years that roll around every 365 days, we also have new months, new weeks, and even new days. I don't know about you, but I need to begin anew more often than each January 1st....

Recently, my husband gave me a beautiful journal, with flowers full of color and blank pages just waiting to be filled with thoughts and ideas. I am still wrapping up the final pages in my old journal, but am so excited and full of anticipation for beginning the new one. The old journal is just that - old. It has pages with scribbled words, written in haste due to a lack of time. There are pages with messy "scratch outs" because I made an error in pen that couldn't be erased. It's also something I've had for many years, and even the cover seems dated. It doesn't reflect me or my personality, because I'm not quite the same person as when I bought it.

Many days at school, I have to remind my students that it's a new day. Whether they've recently received a poor score on a test, or had a day marked with bad behavior and a trip to the principal's office, they have difficulty shaking it and moving forward, past their mistakes. I explain to them, with love and compassion that they can let whatever it is go and have a new day. Yesterday doesn't have to define them.

Oh, how much I am like my students. It's easy to be the one saying "yesterday is over, it's done and forgotten". It's much harder to take that in and believe it as truth. I cling to my yesterdays, full of troubles, guilt, shame, and regret. I let them define me and who I am, sometimes to the point of it crippling me. Like my journal, I feel worn, full of "scratch out" mistakes, and a bit messy. I just want a new beginning, a blank page, a fresh start.

And just like I tell my students, the God of the universe reminds me, that this is available to me. I don't have to wallow in my old-journal mess, defined by the blemishes that mar the page of my life. God erases them.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone; the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.." 2 Corinthians 5:17-18

Oh how wonderful that I am offered a new journal, a fresh start, each and every time I ask and turn to the Lord. My pages are made clean, without spot or blemish, and I am given new mercies each morning from God, who is faithful, even when I am not.