New year... new you?

I think reflection is just part of me. As a touchy-feely English teacher (not-so-much), much of my grad school education classes required me to stop, reflect, and make necessary changes in hopes of rejuvenating my teacher spirit. Whether it worked or not, the habit has stuck with me all these years.

I love new beginnings. The start of a new school year, spring flowers and blooms, the beginning of summer, birthdays, and the new year. I make resolutions at each new year, as well as at the mark of each corner rounded, but I feel like it's the same song, different station... My new resolutions are never really new.

When I was filling out the pages of my new Mom Agenda planner (thanks, Linds), the quote of the week jumped out at me:

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,

but anyone can start

today

and make a new ending."

~Maria Robinson

So, I've been thinking, what does that mean for my life? Where do I want this to go? How do I want this to end?

I keep thinking about my "Streams in the Desert" days of college and ministry and the verse that inspired those thoughts, Isaiah 43:19 from the Message:

Be alert, be present.

I'm about to do something brand-new.

It's bursting out! Don't you see it?

There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,

rivers in the badlands.

The verse before that one talks about forgetting the "former," the "old history." I do believe that there is value in taking inventory of where I am and where I've been, but I must stop dwelling in my "history" of shortcomings. Lord, please do a new thing in me this year.

"Happiness is not a station you arrive at,

but a manner of traveling."

~Margaret Lee Runbeck

I think reflection is just part of me. As a touchy-feely English teacher (not-so-much), much of my grad school education classes required me to stop, reflect, and make necessary changes in hopes of rejuvenating my teacher spirit. Whether it worked or not, the habit has stuck with me all these years.

I love new beginnings. The start of a new school year, spring flowers and blooms, the beginning of summer, birthdays, and the new year. I make resolutions at each new year, as well as at the mark of each corner rounded, but I feel like it's the same song, different station... My new resolutions are never really new.

When I was filling out the pages of my new Mom Agenda planner (thanks, Linds), the quote of the week jumped out at me:

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,

but anyone can start

today

and make a new ending."

~Maria Robinson

So, I've been thinking, what does that mean for my life? Where do I want this to go? How do I want this to end?

I keep thinking about my "Streams in the Desert" days of college and ministry and the verse that inspired those thoughts, Isaiah 43:19 from the Message:

Be alert, be present.

I'm about to do something brand-new.

It's bursting out! Don't you see it?

There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,

rivers in the badlands.

The verse before that one talks about forgetting the "former," the "old history." I do believe that there is value in taking inventory of where I am and where I've been, but I must stop dwelling in my "history" of shortcomings. Lord, please do a new thing in me this year.

"Happiness is not a station you arrive at,

but a manner of traveling."

~Margaret Lee Runbeck