I do love beginnings.  They are so full of promise and possibilities.  They are so full of hope.  Beginnings are a fresh start, a clean slate waiting for me to write anything I want on it.  A clean slate, not yet filled with the mistakes I made yesterday. Beginnings are a fresh snowfall, unspoiled by anyone’s tracks, inviting me to leave whatever footprints I want in the unbroken blanket of white that covers everything in sight with beauty and mystery.

Beginnings are full of second chances and third chances and millionth chances. Beginnings are a chance to get it right, to rectify the wrongs of a different day. Beginnings are a gift, the gift of a do-over.  

Tomorrow will be a new day.  Tomorrow will also be the first day of a new year and the first day of a new decade.  We may pay more attention to tomorrow as a new day because it is New Year’s Day but in truth every day is a new day, a fresh start, a new beginning.  Lamentations 3:21-23 confirms this saying,

“Of this I remind myself, therefore I still have hope: Because of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed; His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.”

I count on that promise from Lamentations.  I count on God’s compassion and mercy never running out but instead being present with me, available to me and actually overflowing towards me.  His love and His compassion surround me new every morning.  My Heavenly Father shows His mercy to me new every morning.  His forgiveness allows me to start each day with a clean slate, full of hope, full of purpose, full of faith, knowing that He will walk with me again today, no matter what the day holds in store for me.

Because of Lamentations 3:23 “They (God’s great love, compassions and mercies) are new every morning;” every day is New Year’s Day.  (well minus the football and time off work)  I don’t have to wait for three hundred sixty-four days to experience another fresh start, clean slate kind of a new beginning.  I can have that experience each day just for the asking.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  (Psalm 51:10)

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”   (Isaiah 43:18-19)

” . . .   I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  . . . I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)

With my Heavenly Father, every day is New Year’s Day.  With each new day I have the opportunity to re-evaluate, to recommit, to reconcile, to resolve anew to live with purpose and with passion for the One who created me.  “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  (Psalm 139:13-14)

Each new day is a gift from God, not just New Year’s Day.  “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.”   (Psalm 3:5)

“All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.   . . .    When I awake, I am still with you.”  (Psalm 139:16, 18)

Lord, I thank You for each and every new day, not just New Year’s Day.  I thank You that Your mercies to me are new every morning.  I thank you for new beginnings, clean slates, fresh starts, overflowing forgiveness and the miracle of Your mercy towards me.

Lord, teach me to number my days aright, that I might gain a heart of wisdom.  (Psalm 90:12)

” ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord.  ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’ ”     (Isaiah 1:18)

every day is a day to rejoice and to celebrate a new beginning; every day is a day full of possibility yet empty, waiting for me to fill it with good things – acts of kindness, words of encouragement, prayers of praise, hands that offer help, ears that listen well, tears for the hurting, comfort for those who mourn,   . . .

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  (Psalm 118:24)

sincerely,                 Grace Day