A Fresh Start

"a new beginning"

It's back to school time! With school beginning comes a lot of preparation and planning. Kids need new clothes, a new backpack and lunch box, a fresh haircut, sharpened pencils with good erasers, and packs of clean paper. My favorite back to school item was shoes...I know you just can't believe it. But I couldn't wait to go back to school shoe shopping! Each year I would buy a new pair of tennis shoes, not necessarily because my feet had grown (because they are about the only thing on my body that doesn't increase in size every year), but because last year's shoes were dirty. So I would start my research early on. I would start by going in every shoe store and browsing, picking out a few here and there and trying them on, remembering the ones that I loved so I could tell my dad all about them. Being the man that he is, he was truly grateful that I did this without him and all he had to do was shell out the bucks and not have to go with me and sit for hours.

But shoe shopping is not what I am wanting to talk about, though I could for hours. What I want to think about is the fresh start that the school year brings. No I don't have children, but I do want that fresh start. I want that new attitude, open mind, and willingness to learn. I want to renew my soul and strengthen my faith. So with that I am turning to blog world. I am not a big writer and usually I don't just lay it all out there, but last night God was tugging on my heart. I know this because the night before last I had hardly any sleep so I couldn't wait to go to bed last night, but little did I know when I laid down that the ideas would come tumbling in. Cartwheel after roundoff after backhandspings of ideas of what to say and how to truly apply it to my life. So finally I fell asleep and I am up before 7 because the ideas came rolling in again. I'm tired of making my own plans and putting them before God's plans for me, so here it is, my fresh start!

The first topic I want to touch on today is the "new shoes," which represent a new outlook and new priorities in my life. So let me say again how I would go about getting my perfect pair of back to school shoes...."So I would start my research early on. I would start by going in every shoe store and browsing, picking out a few here and there and trying them on, remembering the ones that I loved so I could tell my dad all about them." RESEARCH! Really I have to start research, but I always dreaded those stinking research papers in school! Ok I'm over that little meltdown, and it's time to think of the research that I must do.

I keep reading these sentences over and over and it is perfectly clear to me that I must get out my Bible knock that dust from Wednesday night off of it, and dig deep. If you are like me, sometimes you will make a goal to read your Bible daily. So I would take it out, read a couple of chapters as fast as I possibly could, not remembering anything I read, and check that off of my to do list. It seems I do that with a lot of spiritual things but worldly things I spend hours upon hours taking in every detail. So I want to challenge you as well as myself to get out our Bibles and indulge ourselves in it. I'm not saying it has to be hours a day or to read the whole book. But start with a couple of verses and let's truly look at them do our "research."

Next let's browse and pick out a few verses here and there and try them on. Ok now I've hit a sore spot for myself. You see I have a little OCD running through my veins and if I am reading in John I do not want to turn back to Matthew, I just want to keep reading where I am until I get the chapter finished. But we do need to cross reference and be able to have that Aha! moment where things start to come together and make more sense. Just this past year I did my first all girls Bible study, and boy do I recommend it! It is a bonding experience like no other! During this study I had to knock down some of my own walls and stop letting other people spoon feed me and get out there and feed myself. And did you know...that the Bible, from start to finish, fits together perfectly. There are so many underlying themes that I found from Genesis to Revelation that I had never thought of before. It is truly awesome! But don't just read the words, try them on for size. Find a verse or a chapter that applies to you or motivates you and try to put that into play in your life right now.

So moving on, the next thing we need to do is remember the words, verses, and chapters that we love. Memorization another UGH moment. My husband could memorize the phonebook if he wanted to, but I have a hard time remembering what day it is most of the time. But once we find some of those chapters and verses that hit our hearts hard, do you know that it is almost just as hard to not memorize them. Maybe just a few words here and there but the ones that apply to me just stick out like a sore thumb in my mind right now and I didn't even realize I knew them!

And the most important step is to tell people about Him. That was the last part in my shoe shopping process. Before I bought those perfect pair of back to school shoes I had to tell my dad about them. Do you think I went to my dad and said hey I found some shoes, they are at Bennett's you can go get them if you want. NO! I went on and on and on about how much I loved them, and what color they were, how they had squishy things in the heels that would make me jump higher and run faster, and how I would never ask for another pair again if I could just get the perfect pair now. That's how we have to tell others about Jesus, our perfect Jesus! What he has done for us and what he is still doing for us daily, how much we love him, how we are forgiven, and how much we need him now! If we just go about our lives keeping Jesus all to ourselves what joy is that? We have to truly put our joy in Him and let that joy run through our bones until we can't shut up about Him. This is where I struggle the most and so this is my outlet and hopefully my encouragement to you and to myself. I am going to overcome this insecurity within myself until I can walk up to a stranger and tell them all about my Jesus.

I know this has been long and I hope the rest will be shorter but I had to get it all out there. Let's do our best to get that fresh start and encourage each other along the way. If you see your sister's shoes getting dirty, pull out that wet wipe in your purse and wipe them off, and if she is so deep in the dirt that you couldn't possible wipe it all off, pick her up and throw her over your shoulder and carry her out of that sinking mud and get her a new pair of shoes. With much love!