New Year

The kids are back in school,  my husband went to work and now I'm  packing getting ready for a conference.  As I'm getting things ready, I'm taking down the old 2010 calendar and putting up the new 2011 one.  Do you do this - do you look back at last January 2010 and flip through the other months and think back on the year?  I do.  Around this time, I always have a twinge of sadness because the year flew by so fast - (which also means not only are the children getting older but I am as well!)  I looked back at the basketball games, recitals, soccer games, vacations, get togethers, all the fun things that were marked on the calendar as a reminder.  Wow, 2010 went by fast.  Then I realized I was getting stuck in the past.  How many of us are "stuck in the past"?  I think we all know someone who hangs on to the past. "We use to do this..."  "Remember when we did this...?"  Or I think we know someone (and it might be you) who can't forgive their past and it keeps them from doing great things.  Or we might look back and say, "What have I accomplished so far?"  "Did I make a difference?" - and find themselves discouraged if their life hasn't gone as they had planned.

I did something a little different this year.  I still looked back at 2010 and looked at what was accomplished but I also took the new 2011 calendar and looked ahead.  I went and marked the next time school would be out and then started filling in get togethers and then found myself starting to look forward to this upcoming year.  I started thinking about the basketball games we would be seeing soon and then looking forward to Spring Break and other activites in the future.  Now, usually we don't mark the bad things on our calendars. We don't write in the May 18 box "Dentist appt. @ 9:00 and Impending doom @ 1:00" - so I can't know everything that will happen in 2011 but that makes it exciting as well.  There are some events we can mark down and be prepared for, but if we are living a life with God you know that He sometimes doesn't look at our calendars and adhere to our schedule and plans!

Let's look forward to 2011 and know that God has amazing things for us.  Some of us have to stop living in the past or clinging on to the past.   Do things this year that you haven't done before.  Meet new people.  Try a new activity.  Read your bible! May God bless this year and use us to do wonderful things!