Happy New Year

Behold, the New Year approaches
And brings with it a story
Of new beginnings and resolutions,
Of promises in all their glory.

It tells a tale of yesterdays
And brings with it a song
Of an old acquaintance we forgot
And friends we've loved all along.

It brings the promise of a Savior,
Who died for all our sins ~
His promise of a new tomorrow
For all, as the New Year begins.

Behold, the New Year approaches
And brings with it a solution
To all the questions we may have
Of new beginnings and resolutions.

It is a fact of life that all of us will inevitably fail
in something in someway at sometime along the bumpy road
of life. When this happens, we need to be able to forget
it and move on toward our dreams and goals.
To quote Norman Vincent Peale:
"One of the most important of all skills is that of forgetting.
It is said a man is what he...eats. A man is what he forgets.
...to be happy and successful you must cultivate the ability to
say to yourself--forget it! Memory is one of our greatest
facilities, [and] It is a great skill to be able to be selective
and say, 'I will hold this...this other, I will cast from me."
Why is this so important? Because, and I speak from
experience, if you don't, the memories and regrets will eat at
your mind like a cancer and will paralyze your progress to the
extent that you will never be able to move ahead.
And, after all, the failure you are remembering with so much
regret may not be as big of a setback as you think.
To quote the mother superior in "The Sound of Music," when the
Lord closes a door, He opens a window." But we will never see
the window if we are focused upon the closed door.
But, what can we do, if, having tried to forget it, the
thoughts persist in our mind? To further quote from Dr. Peale:
"There are only 2 things to do:
(1)do everything you reasonably can about it,
(2) then practice forgetting it. Walk away from it
in your thoughts. Conceive of it as lying back there growing
ever more dim against the horizon as each day carries you further
from it."
But, not only must we walk away from the old, but walk toward the new. Start filling your mind with new ideas and prospects
for success. If you find your mind blank, try praying. Ask God to fill your mind with fresh new ideas. Then trust that He will. In the words of the Apostle, Paul in Phil.3:13, "Forgetting what is behind and pressing forward to that which is ahead, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Of course, Paul was talking here to believers and if you haven't yet made that all-important first step of accepting Jesus as your Savior, that would be the place to start--and what better time to do so, than at the new year? -- to be born again as the new year is born.

Help me believe in beginnings
God of history and of my heart,
so much has happened to me during these whirlwind days:
I've known death and birth;
I've been brave and scared;
I've hurt, I've helped;
I've been honest, I've lied;
I've destroyed, I've created;
I've been with people, I've been lonely;
I've been loyal, I've betrayed;
I've decided, I've waffled;
I've laughed and I've cried.
You know my frail heart and my frayed history -
and now another day begins.

O God, help me to believe in beginnings
and in my beginning again,
no matter how often I've failed before.

Help me to make beginnings:
to begin going out of my weary mind
into fresh dreams,
daring to make my own bold tracks
in the land of now;
to begin forgiving
that I may experience mercy;
to begin questioning the unquestionable
that I may know truth
to begin disciplining
that I may create beauty;
to begin sacrificing
that I may make peace;
to begin loving
that I may realize joy.

Help me to be a beginning to others,
to be a singer to the songless,
a storyteller to the aimless,
a befriender of the friendless;
to become a beginning of hope for the despairing,
of assurance for the doubting,
of reconciliation for the divided;
to become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed,
of comfort for the sorrowing,
of friendship for the forgotten;
to become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn,
of sweetness for the soured,
of gentleness for the angry,
of wholeness for the broken,
of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.

Help me to believe in beginnings,
to make a beginning,
to be a beginning,
so that I may not just grow old,
but grow new
each day of this wild, amazing life
you call me to live
with the passion of Jesus Christ.

"I am come that they might hove life, and might have
it more abundantly."(John 10:10)
Every new year is like the beginning of a totally new life!
it's exciting! Today is really the first day of the rest of
your life. It's a chance to begin all over again.
Awhile back I was interviewed in a radio station in Chicago,
Illinois. There was just the interviewer and myself in a
little radio room. We looked through a glass window at the
engineer, who threw us the signal to begin. The interviewer
began... "We have with us today, Dr. Robert Schuller," etc.
Then he asked me a question. Just after be bad asked it,
he clapped his hands and said, "I'm sorry, the engineer is
telling me that something didn't go right.
We'll have to start over." He looked at the engineer and said:
"Let's go again in about five minutes." Then he turned to me and
remarked, "This is a chance to start over.
You know," be added, "it isn't often in life that you get a
chance to start over again."
After five minutes, the engineer gave the signal and we
started again. "Good morning, we have with us today, Dr.
Schuller, etc.m etc., etc...."
It isn't often in life that you get a chance to start all over
again. I believe that every day is a chance to start all over
again. Start living a new life today! A New You in the New year.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
I choose to live it abundantly.
-------------------------------------------
The above is actually a devotional for Jan 1st. and a part of the
book "Living Powerfully One Day At A Time" by Robert H. Schuller.

God grant us this year a wider view,
So we see others' faults through the eyes of You.
Teach us to judge not with hasty tongue,
Neither the adult ... nor the young.
Give us patience and grace to endure
And a stronger faith so we feel secure;
And instead of remembering, help us forget
The irritations that caused us to fret.
Freely forgiving for some offense
And finding each day a rich recompense,
In offering a friendly, helping hand
And trying in all ways to understand,
That all of us whoever we are ...
Are trying to reach "an unreachable star."
For the great and small ...
The good and bad,
The young and old ...
The sad and glad,
Are asking today,
"Is life worth living?"
And the answer is only in "loving" and "giving."
For only "Love" can make man kind
And Kindness of Heart brings Peace of Mind,
And by giving love we can start
This year to lift the clouds of hate and fear.

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your
cardiologist, your gastro-enterologist, your urologist, your
proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your
plumber and the I.R.S
May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs and your
stocks not fall; and may your blood pressure, your
tri-glycerides, your cholesterol, your white blood count and
your mortgage interest not rise.
May New Year's Eve find you seated around the table,
together with your beloved family and cherished friends. May
you find the food better, the environment quieter, the cost
much cheaper, and the pleasure much more fulfilling than
anything else you might ordinarily do that night.
May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others
see in you delight them. May someone love you enough to
forgive your faults, be blind to your blemishes, and tell
the world about your virtues.
May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until
you finish dinner, may the commercials on TV not be louder
than the program you have been watching, and may your check
book and your budget balance - and include generous amounts
for charity.
May you remember to say "I love you" at least once a day to
your spouse, your child, your parent, your siblings; but not
to your secretary, your nurse, your masseuse, your
hairdresser or your tennis instructor.
And may we live in a world at peace and with the awareness
of God's love in every sunset, every flower's unfolding
petals, every baby's smile, every lover's kiss, and every
wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart.
---author unknown

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