Happy New Year!

If you're not a teacher, you don't understand the title of this blog post, as it's August. If you are a teacher, you get it. I mean, you get it. Summer has flown by for yet another year. Your classroom isn't ready, you're not sure how many students you'll end up with, and you know there's no amount of coffee in the world that will keep you awake during those inservice sessions. But take heart: it is a new year! Our pastor once said that pastors get two new years: one in January and one at Easter. Similarly, teachers and students get two: one in January and one in August (or September). And I love it -- not only one chance to make resolutions, but two! One of my favorite quotations is from L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: "Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it." So today I'm on the hunt for some "new" verses to guide me through the start of this brand-new school year.


And really, we have a "new year" every day. As our pastor said this past April, today is the day of salvation. Each moment is a fresh start with our Father, our Savior, and our Spirit.

"He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord" (Psalm 40:3).


"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland" (Isaiah 43:18-19).


"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:21-23).


"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).


"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Now, getting down to specifics, what are my new-school-year resolutions?

1. Pray for my students and colleagues
2. Have "God time" every morning by praying, listening, reading the Word
3. Exercise (The body is a temple, is it not?)

Whether you are a teacher or a student or whether you're not, I pray for a peaceful and prosperous new year for you today.

P.S. A side note about the Ezekiel passage: He puts His Spirit in us so that we are "moved to" follow what He says --- NOT the other way around! So, please do what you must to let His Spirit in and work in you. Set aside time to do that today.