I love new beginnings.
As a child, I loved the start of a new school year: new pencils, crayons, textbooks and notebooks. The notebooks offered clean pages which had, as Anne Shirley says of new mornings, “no mistakes in them yet.”
As an adult, I love the start of a new year, although the years seem to pass more swiftly than they used to. I don’t make resolutions as such, but I do set goals for various areas of my life.
My theme for 2012 is to grow stronger. So far the theme is broad and vague. I must now focus in on how to increase my strength in particular areas of my life. I cannot make these things happen on my own. I pray that God will help me to grow in all aspects of my life so that this year I will glorify Him.
I pray that you too will see hope and purpose in the year before us, that you will desire to live intentionally in 2012. We have no idea how many new years—or months or days—we have on this earth. As Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
A quote from my teen years said, “This is the first day of the rest of your life.” I challenge you to use this new beginning to make your life count for good and for God.
Happy New Year and God bless you!