Every year at 12:01 a.m. on the first of January, cultures around the globe ring in a New Year. We go crazy with fireworks and parties. We shout and sing. It’s a New Year!
But why? Why all the fuss? After all, the transition from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day is really only the passing of one single, solitary minute. Yet somehow, we have been conditioned to believe this minute is unlike every other minute that will tick-tock off the celestial clock throughout the year. And at midnight, everything that was impossible the minute before is now possible.
Certainly it is possible to get out of debt, break an addiction or lose a hundred pounds, but it is not going to happen simply because it is the first day of a new calendar year. As is evident in the millions of New Year’s resolutions made every January – only to be broken in February.
If we’re honest, we find that many of us make the same New year’s resolution year after year. When the newness wears off, and life shows up, we start smoking, stop working out, stop saving money, stop giving, stop volunteering. We watch too much television. We “fail.” And then, well, we decide to wait until next year.
So let’s be frank – the passing of the New Year does not magically equip anyone with the tools, strength, or determination needed to accomplish anything. Accomplishing our goals requires hard work, discipline, and sacrifice, and many of us will stumble before we walk.
As Christian women, we should always be about setting positive, measurable goals that orient us toward a closer relationship with Jesus Christ and January IS a great time for prayerful reflection. But even as we celebrate the New Year, it is important to remember what scripture says!
God’s mercy is new every morning.
Lamentations 3:23
This means that every single midnight ushers in a New Beginning. We don’t have to wait until New Year’s Eve to have a New Beginning. We can go to bed, wake up, and start all over again…every single day…until we get it right!
This is not a license for laziness or deliberate failure, but I share this because I know so many women, myself included, who fall prey to unrealistic expectations about what it means when we start a New Year. Many of us face the early weeks of January with hopeful efforts to make a lasting, positive changes in our lives. We start the year with good intentions, but find that we lack the time or the energy.
We want 2017 to be an intentional and strategic year for PROJECT2031 and for you.
To maximize our own God-given potential in 2017, Christian women everywhere need to develop a true New Beginnings mindset. We need to remember that His Mercy is new every morning. Every morning we are given another opportunity to seek God’s Will in our lives. Every morning we can recommit to change. Every morning, He provides the provision we need for that day. Every morning is a New Beginning.
Yesterday is gone. Today is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Remember, today truly is the first day of the rest of your life. What you do with it is up to you. Embrace your New Beginning.
Happy 2017!
