thoughts on the new year...

i want to move on from that depressing last entry but don't have a lot of time so...i thought i'd just copy what i wrote for the relief society newsletter.

I wanted to write about the new year and getting a fresh start. I felt inspired by what Sister Schortinghuis said in her testimony on Sunday. I can’t give a direct quote, but I like how she said that we don’t need to wait for a new year to start anew but that each day can be a fresh start. Sister Schortinghuis’s remarks got me thinking about how we live in a world full of cycles from days to weeks to seasons to years and how each one gives us an opportunity to move forward and be better than we were in the last cycle. Really that is the way it should be in the gospel. We are to open and close each day with a prayer. Just as sacrament meeting would not feel right without starting with a prayer, our day should not start without an opening prayer. I’ve never thought of my morning prayer being an opening prayer for the day before but let’s go with that idea for a moment. We pray when we first get up and consecrate the day to the Lord. This action helps us to “stay the course” throughout the day and then in the evening we close the day, review how we did, repent, and resolve to do better the next day. Starting all over is a gift to us through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is because of Him we can start everyday with a clean slate.