All Things New

By:  Donna Martin

Happy New Year!  Isn’t it refreshing how God planned our lives so that we can have a fresh start?  Every day we wake up with a clean slate and an opportunity to try to live better than we did the day before.  Twelve times a year we have the opportunity to do better than we did the month before.  Four times a year we are blessed with a new season to enjoy.  And this time every year we get to begin a new year with new goals and resolutions to do better, be better and love better than the year before. 

God in his Omniscience gave us the gift of fresh starts.   The Bible speaks to us about this in several verses:

Philippians 3:13-14 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (ESV)

Isaiah 43:18-19 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (ESV)

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)

Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  (ESV)

Regrets, mistakes, losses and other heartaches that have happened in the past can do two things; they can hinder us and keep us from being all that God wants us to be, or we can learn what God is teaching us in those experiences and become the person God is shaping us to be.

So today, take a deep breath, shake off the things in your past that are restraining you.  Fix your eyes on Jesus and resolve with his help to become more like Him in your marriage, your family, your extended family and in all of your relationships in 2016.

The Martins currently present “Happy Together” Marriage Enrichment Events for churches and organizations.  To schedule an event call Michael at 940-735-1515. They are certified “Prepare/Enrich” Facilitators and are available to work with couples on an individual basis using the “Prepare/Enrich Assessment.”  They publish a weekly “Happy Together” Blog about family and marriage issues.  You can order copies of their new books Dancing With Death and 366 Tidbits We Have Learned in 14,610 Days of Marriage, read, and subscribe to their “Happy Together” Blog by logging onto the Martin’s website at www.happytogethermarriages.com.