photo source (possibly her senior picture?)
"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" ~ L.M. Montgomery, Author - Anne of Green Gables
☃ It's almost January & right up front I want to apologize for the title of this blog. It has been exhaustively used ad nauseam and I definitely used it an annoying amount of times with my 8th graders when they returned from Christmas break. You know- for behavior management mileage-in hopes of extending my holiday magical feeling.
You see, mid-year 8th grade, you may recall, is a pivotal time where all of a sudden everyone is looking at you as being high school bound rather than a middle school fixture. The downside is you know you move to the bottom of the food chain as a freshman. But the upside is an emphasis on what a great time to start managing yourself, your emotions, your ambitions.
☃ Just like out in the real world, it's brought to the microcosm of the math classroom. Helping my students visualize the next season of their life, their next accomplishment, the excitement of a new beginning, and the joy of leaving the past behind. Doesn't that sound refreshing?
Until that old self talk and self criticism surfaces and dwarfs the dopamine that is created by the thought of starting anew. We start shrinking from the "failure" word we are calling ourselves. Like we've talked about before in an earlier blog, we have to rely on the daily habit of seeing what God says about it.
God invented "new". He is the God of fresh starts, new beginnings, new life, new love. He can take the broken pieces of our lives & create something lovely.
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17
"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them." ~ Ezekiel 11:19
"But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint." ~ Isaiah 40:31
" For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give hope and a future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11
"But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God's righteousness." ~2 Peter 3:13
☃ And I especially love that His mercies never stop. He doesn't carry the fail from "that one time" or say "Really? Again?" Of course be resolute in wanting to improve your body, your relationships, your mind; it does SO much for our overall welfare. But the verse below literally shreds the critics in our mind that say our efforts equate with our worth. It's not about our efforts. It's about His effort on our behalf.
"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
☃ To come back to Lucy Maud Montgomery's attitude about "new" that
she bestowed on Anne's personality- "We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us."
✙ Dear Heavenly Father, from Your initial creation of our world, you established that You can make something out of nothing; in our lives You can make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. You rejoice in giving us many chances to grow closer to You. Thank you for that. You are our Father who wants our very best and cares enough to bring us along. Help us enjoy Your new mercies each morning. Amen.
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