Do Over

Don’t we all just love the chance for a clean slate with the coming of a New Year?  For me it’s like a do-over chance for anything I messed up in the previous year.  It’s a restart button (I just talked “geek.” My hubby will be so proud.)   In 2013 I started out working out and training.  I was enjoying AWESOME results.  But I dropped off around October when we started traveling to and from Ukraine for the adoption.  I wish I’d continued working out.  I wish I would have helped Andrew more with his academics.  Actually, I wish I’d taken some time to slow down for ALL the kids.  I wish I’d studied God’s Word more.  I wish I’d sought His face more in prayer.  I wish I’d saved a few more dollars.  I wish I’d spoke a lot less and listened a lot more to others around me.  I wish I’d had more fun instead of taking life so seriously.

Haley-Alissa got a chance for a re-do when the nice lady at American Girl sent her a new doll to replace the doll she accidentally decapitated.  We all make mistakes, but the beauty of mistakes is when we choose to learn from them and not repeat past mistakes.  Everyone deserves a second chance! 

Brokenhearted by her mistake.....

She was given a new doll and a 2nd chance to take care of her doll

 

All smiles now!

 

Did you mess up at all in 2013?  Moses messed up.  He murdered a man, but yet God still used him to lead His people out of Egypt.  Jonah made a mistake by doing the opposite of God’s will, but God still used him to reach the people of Ninevah.  David had an affair with Bathsheba, and God still sent his Son through his bloodline and called David “a man after His own heart.”  My list could go on with examples from Scripture.  God can still use you or I even if we have made big mistakes!

I recommend forgetting the mistakes from 2013!!  Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a just man falls 7 times, but yet he rises again!” It is all about a choice!  This year decide to set goals for yourself.  A lot of people object to the traditional “resolutions” because they never achieve the resolutions anyway.  However, without goals you have nothing to aim for.  One of my Finance professors used to always say, "Failing to plan is planning to fail."  I read a quote in a book called Life Wide Open which says, “Passionate people, persist, persevere, never lose heart and never quit!”  So go get some goals, write them down, grab an accountability partner, pray for wisdom and strength to succeed and let’s head into 2014 with confidence and determination to be used by God!   I’m very much looking forward to a wide open slate in 2014 and for all that God has in store for our family. 

God bless all of you, my friends and family.  Happy New Slate!