Clean Slate

As a new year begins, we all want to start over with a clean slate. Forget about the things in the past year that we screwed up on. It is time to create a new record, a new way of living. On the new year, we each resolve to change all the areas that need improvement. If only all the things we have done wrong over the past year could actually be wiped clean and forgotten!!

If you are like me, sometimes it is hard to press toward new and better goals for the haunting of all the things I have done wrong. At times, it is so much easier to look at all the areas in life where I have failed. Yes the last year has had many great strides in my personal, professional, and spiritual life... but for some reason, the failures are what stay impressed at the forefront of my memory.

One of my favorite scriptures is found in Isaiah. I love the way The Message just spits it out in such plain English:

"...you're my servant. I made you, shaped you: You're my servant... I'll never forget you. I've wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings. There's nothing left of your sins. Come back to me, come back. I've redeemed you." -Isaiah 44:21-22

Oh how wonderful to think that my slate has been wiped clean!! All I have to do is ask. Jesus has redeemed me and I can start over any time I need to. He is right there creating a clean slate for me to start walking in the right direction.

Yes, I have messed up many times over the past year. I could write you a list right there on that little chalkboard... but...LOOK... it has already been wiped clean!!! Let's take the clean slate God has given us today and begin writing a story to be proud of. God bless you this new year!