New Beginnings

I'm not a big fan of ringing in the new year.

As a child, I always did join in the family activities. Mom would make a bunch of finger foods – I remember the pigs in a blanket the most. Then we'd sometimes play games and would always welcome in the new year with a puzzle – at least 1000 pieces, if I recall correctly.

I enjoyed the time with my family, but I also like to sleep. It usually took a great deal of determination to stay up until 12:00 to welcome January 1, and by 12:02 I would be gratefully headed to bed.

My wonderful husband and I have generally welcomed in the new year from behind closed eyelids. To us, January 1 is just a day picked to turn over the calendar.

But, turning over the calendar does make me think of something that is very important – the idea of new beginnings.

We often have a great need to start over. To try again. To have a clean slate.

I'm not a huge advocate of New Year's resolutions. They are often to broad, too long-term to really ever be kept. That being said, however, I believe whole-heartedly in fresh starts, and I think we might need to consider the need for “resolutions” that we are willing to keep.

Turning over the calendar makes a great starting point for change. But, it doesn't have to wait for January 1. It can be turning the calendar to a new month, week, or even day.

As I look back over 2009, I realize that I never really set a New Year's resolution, but I definitely saw a great deal of change in my home, family, and personal life. Things I have long desired to do I finally saw come to fruition. Maybe I finally gained the maturity I needed. Maybe circumstances were just right for the first time. Maybe it was a combination of many factors.

But, there is one factor that was the same for all of the accomplishments of 2009. I made up my mind that a change was needed, and I didn't wait to implement that change.

No longer did I wait for a Monday start date to kick off an exercise routine, to establish new eating habits, to start something new with my kids, or to implement a new family schedule. Discipline could be begun immediately, with no sense of “when ____________ passes, we'll start.”

As I began to implement my big ideas immediately, I began to see progress I'd never seen before. I was riding on the wave of enthusiasm that gave me energy to get going before I could talk myself out of it.

Whatever your goals for the new year, I encourage you to consider this – start them immediately. January 1 falls on a Friday with football games and the beginning of a long weekend. It would be so easy to wait until Monday to start something new. But why wait? Start now! Start today! There's no better time.

I pray that this year will be a year of successful fresh starts for all of us -that we will see God do things in us that He's never been able to do before because we are abandoned to Him. Not planning to be abandoned starting on Monday, but abandoned to Him now!