A long but very productive day, Father. Thank You for watching over us as we went to make a very special donation and ran to pick up some needed items, as well.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
With the times in which we find ourselves, I have seen several times on social media where people have posted a version of this meme asking, “I think you need to reinstall 2020. There’s a virus!” It may work for computers but in life, we just have to tough it out.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just get do-overs every so often in life?
We used to do it as kids! We’d try something new, maybe a game or learning some activity and we’d royally mess it up. We wouldn’t quite grasp the nuances of the game and instead, we’d crash and burn. “Do over!” I remember as a kid trying to do a handstand in a pool and not being able to pull it off or not being able to hold my breath long enough to get upright in the water and after coming up gasping for breath yelling, “Do over!”
As adults, how often do we find ourselves in situations where we have done something or said something that we would like to just backup, erase, and restart from the beginning? At work, in relationships, sometimes just life in general, it would be great to have do-overs!
But as we all know, that’s just not how life works…
Sometimes we have hurt people over and over so many times that “I’m sorry” just doesn’t cut it anymore. The only thing that will heal those kinds of things is time and lots and lots of love. Patience helps, too. And where would we be without forgiveness?
On second thought, another option would be to stop doing the things that hurt them – what a novel idea! In this life, we really can’t start over, but we can always start fresh!
And that is where God factors in – big time! He is all about new beginnings! Every day brings with it new opportunities – opportunities to change, to be different, to improve who we are. Our goal in all of this should be to be more and more like Jesus in all we say and do.
In the Old Testament God spoke to the nation of Israel through the prophet Isaiah. He said, in regards to the past,
“…forget all that—
….it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new.
….See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
….I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19 (NLT)
With God all things are possible!
Help me Lord to be pliable in Your hands to change where I need to change. I am not perfect, but I can change…with You by my side. May I heed Your direction. May my desires for “do-overs” turn into “start freshes”! Amen!
May 4th, 2020, Mon, 8:23 pm
