With the new year well underway, I find myself once again thinking about new beginnings. I love the idea of a fresh start--a brand new year to resolve to change things for the better and see what God will do. Some years, I take on a resolution, though not always. I don't like the idea of starting off strong with a resolution only to watch myself let it go. :) Last year, I resolved to try and drink a green smoothie every day. I really did stick with that one, and I felt great as I even craved my daily green smoothie throughout my entire pregnancy with our latest sweet baby. Each year, Todd and I set aside a time in January to reflect back on the previous year and then to pray for the new year to come. I love this time, as I am always reminded of all the wonderful things our God has done, and as we look forward to what the new year will bring--the challenges, joys, all that comes with the adventure of walking with the LORD.
Many years ago at a New Year's Day service at church, I sang a song by Randy Stonehill entitled "Old Clothes." I love the words of this song, and how they speak of the new beginning I have in Christ:
Toys from my childhood,
Old photographs,
Left in this dusty old suitcase.
The things we once cherished
Are lost with the past.
Seek out the treasure
That always will last.
So I'm packing up my old clothes
With my old and foolish ways.
They just don't seem to fit me anymore.
I see the light of morning
With different eyes today.
And I'm giving my tomorrows to the Lord.
So many heroes
That never came through,
Too man roads going nowhere--
But Jesus was whispering
"I still love you,"
With a love that makes
All things new
So I'm packing up my old clothes
With my old and foolish ways.
They just don't seem to fit me anymore.
I see the light of morning
With different eyes today.
And I'm giving my tomorrows to the Lord.
--Randy Stonehill, 1990
When I sang this song in church, I was a very new believer, just beginning my journey with the Lord. I sang it to Him from the heart as a promise that I would give my life to Him every day. And I have! More than 17 years later, these thoughts and words still ring true today in my life. I was a very different person before I found Jesus. When I came to Christ, I changed so much, and it was just like the image of the old clothes that don't fit anymore. The things that were once appealing to me, and the things that motivated me were no longer important. I had been transformed, renewed. I really did feel like I was taking off ill-fitting old clothes and putting on fresh, new beautiful ones!
Each day I also get a new beginning. I love to wake up early, before anyone else is stirring, grab my coffee and my Bible, and pray for the new day and all the challenges I know it will bring as I strive to raise the precious brood of children with whom I have been entrusted. I am blessed knowing that even when I stumble and fall, even when I am not the perfect parent, wife, friend, daughter (which, of course, I never am), I can always begin anew! He makes all things new!! Praise the Lord for new beginnings. May 2012 be a year full of the grace and wonder of walking with Him.
"If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."
Ephesians 4:21-24
"And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"
Revelation 21:5
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