A Fresh Start

One of my fondest memories of starting school was buying a new notebook.  I loved the kind that had 5 subjects and had pockets on the dividers....suited my inner organized girl.  I would get that notebook and sit with it for a bit.  Call me strange, but I would almost talk to that notebook. This year I promise I will write neatly in you.  This year I promise I won't have big scribbles and big mess-ups.  This year I won't have to tear out one page due to my lack of effort and self control.  I will NOT doodle while the teacher is talking, honest!

Reality hit hard and it hit fast.  The first day of school would arrive and I took out that notebook. I opened it with fine intentions and took a breath and wrote my name.  ARRRGHH!  I hated the way I wrote my name. I messed up on it and it was the only thing written in it.  What a failure to mess up before I had even had an assignment.  Rip....out goes the page and a fresh one was there for the using.  Get it right, girl!

Think I'm extreme?  Maybe...but I've talked to other women who had the same ambitions on the first day of school with the new notebook.  I think there are a bunch of us out there, desiring perfection....even in a notebook....and having to rip out and start fresh over and over.  Or....I'm crazy and I'm the only one who talks to their notebooks on the first day of school.  Help!

All of this makes me think of God's mercy and forgiveness.  Every day is a brand new page in our notebooks.  We get up early and say, "Today, I'm not going to mess you up."  "Today, I'm going to live right and be kind to others."  "Today, I"m not going to yell at my kids or argue with my husband."  The alarm rings....our feet hit the floor....and before we know it, RIPPPP, there goes our mouth or our mind or our wayward flesh.  Today's page has a big scribble on it and we've messed up.

I'm so thankful we serve a God who is all about mercy and grace.  We don't have to live with our heads hanging down in shame or beat ourselves up.  God has forgiven us our transgressions and every day is a new beginning a new page with all the lines clean and waiting for what we will write on it.  Take heart!

Lamentations 3:22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.