2011

Oh, here we go again!  I think that I just got into the habit of writing 2010 and we are here at 2011.  Don't you just love the feel of a new year?  One of the joys of teaching was that first day ... every one started fresh - new books, new bulletin boards, clean chalkboards, and new class ...  Here we are with new opportunities before us.

Philippians 3:13-14

Brethren, I count not myself t have apprehended:

but this one thing I do,

forgetting those things which are behind,

and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark

for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

With the new year, I can view this verse in two ways. 

First,  I am reminded to leave a rough past year in the past.  Maybe I did not reach all my goals, maybe I did not grow spiritually as I should have, maybe I was not the servant that I needed to be.  It is in the past.  What is keeping me from reaching those goals this year, from growing in the Lord this week, from serving now?

Second, I can be reminded to leave a successful year in the past in order to grow this year.  It is easy to look upon what I have done in the past and then fail to go forward because I am relishing what has happened in the past.  God wants to use me in the here and now.  Congratulations on your successes of last year, now press toward the future!  What else will God allow you to do?