I love New Year’s Eve. It’s when people, in general, feel the most hope every year. There’s something beautiful, refreshing, and invigorating about having a “fresh start” to your life the minute that clock strikes midnight. You messed up your walk with Jesus? Fresh start. You endured extremely hard circumstances? Fresh start headed your way. You don’t like the person you’re becoming? Fresh start yourself before you wreck yourself!

I recently challenged our teen girl bible study class about their growth. If you are today the same person you were a year ago, you’re not growing as a Christian. If you’re no more closer to God than you were a year ago, then you’re going backwards. There’s no stand still in the Christian walk: it’s forward or backward. I look at myself today and I know that I’m not the same person I was a year ago… and that is a very good thing.

A year ago, my husband and I were feeling a little lost and a little bitter. We felt maybe we’d missed God’s calling on our lives and that we were meant to move on, but we’d missed the “where” part of God’s call. We were so stuck in our routine– in the familiar. Then, on January 26th, my lifelong best friend/uncle who’d I had grown up with as though we were brother and sister passed away of a heart attack. At only 33. God used this terrible loss to bring us into His will. We followed Him thousands of miles away and returned to our real calling: working with teens again.

As I contemplate how different my husband and I are now than the way we were last January, I can’t help but think about the value of a fresh start. We both have grown more tender to God’s leading in our daily living. We both have grown more patient with those whom we do not agree with. We have been learning to communicate more clearly with one another.

So, let’s talk about your fresh start. If I were to ask you, “What is the one thing you need to change more than anything?” what are the first two things that pop into your head? My answer last night was how I’m treating my temple (my body) and playing more with my 2-years-old. Those first two things that popped right into your head are most likely your most honest answers to that question. Knowing what you need to change is the perfect beginning to a fresh start. How do you go about practically becoming a better you in this fresh start of 2018?

1. Make the choice. Simple, right? But it’s the obvious first step in your fresh start. You can’t better yourself until you’re ready to admit you have a fault and make the choice to better that fault. You can’t just know in your mind that you probably should do something different: it’s making the conscience choice today, tomorrow, and every day after that to be a better you in your fresh start. It’s easy to feel like maybe we don’t deserve the chance to be different or to be better. Especially if we’ve really messed up recently. God’s Word tells us in Galatians 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” You don’t have to be in bondage to your past. It’s okay to feel free enough to change. God created you to be free, not entangled. Make the choice to accept your fresh start.
2. Be ready to fail a little. Proverbs 24:16 tells us, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” Part of growing in your fresh start is knowing that you are most likely not going to be perfect. You’re going to fall a little every now and then, but the important part that God wants you to remember is to rise up again. If you make a mistake or fall back into an old habit, forgive yourself and move on. Remember, you’re moving only forward or backward: if you fall, get up and move. 
3. Ask for God’s strength to help you. It’s very easy to fall into the thought process that you have to change all on your own. It’s easy to think that if you were just strong enough, then you could change yourself easier. But Psalms 73:26 tells us, “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” Our body and our mind are going to fail us in our quest for a fresh start, but not if God’s our strength. Ask Him for help in creating a better you and He’ll respond with the strength to endure.

2018 can be many things, but most importantly it can be a fresh start for you. My prayer is that we’ll be a different (aka better) version of ourselves one year from today. Happy fresh starting!

Love, Meghan