Each January, I remember the admonition to Anne Shirley, that each day is fresh with no mistakes.  The same is true of 2008.  I am rarely good at keeping New Year’s resolutions.  Sometimes it is my own fault, such as the treadmill still standing, dusty and folded up, and here it is January 2nd.  Sometimes it is the result of another’s neglect, like my thwarted policy of waking up every morning to a clean kitchen, only to find that the midnight snackers didn’t get the memo.  It seems that whatever I resolve on January 1st, I will rarely be able to check it off my list by December 31st!

Right after Thanksgiving, I pulled out the Christmas decorations.  With each box, many wonderful memories poured out along with the stockings bearing children’s names, the carefully wrapped Dickens village and the handmade angels.  I meticulously arranged them all, wanting to create the most perfect of holidays for those who graced our home.  But now these treasures are becoming clutter, dusty and irritating, my enjoyment of them waning as I long for bare mantels and tables. Quick, somebody pass me that January issue of Martha Stewart!

I find that my spiritual life is like this, too.  I long to put away those things that clutter my spirit, that discourage me from trusting in God’s sovereign plan for my life.  Today, I can only think of beginning my new Bible study, of reading the inspirational books I received from my husband for Christmas, of listening to new praise music I have never before heard.   And so I begin the new year with a clean slate, 365 fresh days in front of me to do with as I please.

But then I am reminded that I am not my own, I was bought with a Great Price, and because of this, I will look back before I consider how I will spend the next 365.  As I do, I see all the many blessings that have come from God’s gracious hand in the past and I can anticipate the new ones I know are still on the horizon.  I reflect, in sorrow, on the precious little one we buried this year.  I look forward to the joy of a new baby this summer.  I grieve over broken relationships from the past year as a result of taking some hard stands on this blog.  I praise God for the women who have written to thank me for connecting the dots for them on some topic, for the restoration of their families because they listened to a podcast that encouraged them.  I understand that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away and, in both, His name is blessed, that the sorrowful times and the difficult times are all part of making me into the person He wants me to be.

Life is rarely clutter free.  In fact, I will bet by the end of the week, I will already have messes in both my house and my life.  Yet, I continue to hold on to this verse “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions do not fail, they are new every morning.  Lord, great is your faithfulness.”