Um…wait a minute. The days are still long(ish). The weather is still hot. Bathing suits are still acceptable all day long. Pumpkin spice latte and peppermint anything hasn’t found their way into everything yet. And Christmas decorations are already full price everywhere.
So, maybe I’m not talking about the beginning of a new year, but the beginning of a school year. Whether you have school-age children or not, your life is probably somewhat affected by the beginning of a school year. If you serve in ministry at church, you probably started a new curriculum this month, or new Bible studies will start. If you have to be out in the mornings or afternoons your commute is probably affected by school bus stops. You are for sure noticing all the ads at the stores for back to school items, treats, and clothes, and all the school supplies.
School supply shopping was one of my favorite activities to do every year. I eagerly anticipated orientation so I could meet my teacher and get the school supply list. We didn’t have Amazon, didn’t have supply lists that were posted on the school website. We also just had to go buy them, couldn’t get them bought for us. And I didn’t pay for them so I never knew how expensive they were. I had my Trapper Keeper and Lisa Frank supplies for everything. And brown Publix grocery bag book covers so I could doodle on them year-round. Now, I’m super thankful that I can sign a form for my kids and all their supplies can be waiting for them at Open House. Because taking two boys school supply shopping in the chaos doesn’t sound like my idea of fun.
As a mom, especially as a mom to two grade-school boys, brothers who are close in age, I highly anticipate the start of the school year. I anticipate their new adventures of riding the bus together, meeting new teachers, making new friends, learning new things. I’m not typically one of those moms who cry at the beginning of each year – I typically cry at the end of the year, thankful for the ones who have poured into their lives all year and loved them so well.
I also highly anticipate the start of a new school year because it gives me a chance for a brand new start. A new start, you know, sort of like the new New Year. It’s like you get to wake up and start afresh. Maybe it’s a new wardrobe or a new job, a new planner, or just new opportunities to live your day in a new way. I tend to make many business and ministry goals. Now that I’ll have my days pretty free, I’ve taken on a small part-time job, but also have this mompreneur life going and can be more involved in ministries and discipleship.
The new is exciting to me. I always love to explore and adventure, but, I need to remember that the new is important every day. I need the new every day. I have found much comfort in the new of every morning especially these past couple of weeks. There is a new sunrise. There is a new chance to breathe grace into my boys’ hearts. There is a new opportunity for me to sit in the Word of God. There is a new opportunity for me to rest in His ability and not my ability to mess things up. There is a new chance for me to see more clearly the character of God that never changes. There is even more room in His mercy for me—more room in His grace. More room, height, and depth in His love for me.
I would like to share with you one of my most recent favorite songs. I hope it encourages you to breathe in the new—the new day, the new year, new mercy, but praise be to Jesus – the same God!
His Mercy is More (Matt Papa)
What love could remember, no wrongs we have done
Omniscient, all-knowing, He counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Verse 2:
What patience would wait as we constantly roam
What Father so tender is calling us home
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Verse 3:
What riches of kindness He lavished on us
His blood was the payment His life was the cost
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
Chorus:
Praise the Lord
His mercy is more
Stronger than darkness
New every morn’
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
And, I hope that these Bible verses were brought to mind as you read this short post, as they were certainly in my mind as I wrote it.
I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
-Lamentation 3:19-26
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. -Ephesians 3:14-21
Enjoy the new! Every day is made new by God, and in Him only can the wondrous joy of refreshment be found.
