"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it yet?" ~Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
It is more than a comfort to know that each day offers the promise of a tomorrow--a new day, with no mistakes in it, yet.
The yet, perhaps, is the important word in that sentence! Because mistakes will surely be made. I will speak too sharply to someone, and I'll gossip or criticize someone and then feel guilty, I will break a commitment I have made to myself one more time. Perhaps I'll forget to return a phone call or water a plant that dies--and know that I wasted my money and failed one more time. The possibilities of ways to make big mistakes and small are endless. In the past, those sorts of things weighed heavy on my heart. Why couldn't I just get everything accomplished, as everyone else seemed to do? Why was I still impatient and unorganized sometimes?
Sometimes it is assumed that anyone who speaks or writes or works to inspire other moms has "arrived" to some extent. There can be an illusion that at my house, everything is perfect, no one is ever cross, and there's no effort necessary to keep things running smoothly. This, I can assure you, is not the case!
"I do not consider myself to be a perfect mother. My aspirations and what I can idealize oftentimes far exceed my ability to live up to them in reality. Yet it is in being able to visualize the dreams of my heart and beauty of God's design that I have found a standard of maturity to move toward.
As I reflect on my own life, I feel that I have learned so much--the hard way, by making many mistakes. Many moments of stress and struggle could have been handled so much more easily if I had had a wiser, older woman to shed light on my stages of life. It was through writers like Edith Schaeffer that I was encouraged and helped along my way. My hope is that in some way, I might be able to provide that same encouragement and inspiration."~ from The Mission of Motherhood
Mistakes will be made, and our ideals are not always realized- and others disappoint while we disappoint ourselves. But the most wonderful truth that I pray will go deep into my own heart and to yours, is that the love of God is steadfast--it never changes, it remains strong, it's loyalty does not change.
Take this deeply into your brain and into your heart--The steadfast love of the Lord never, ever ceases and His mercies never come to and end. Every morning they are there waiting for you to bathe yourself in once again.
--And best of all, the truth that I can always begin again! Every day a clean slate, a new beginning, a fresh history.
Today, you are new and fresh--walk in the newness and reality of a clean slate and live into His everlasting love.
Aim high, sweet mama. And when mistakes come, know they are covered by the One who holds all in His hands, and whose mercies are "new every morning!"
Memorize this verse and sing it to yourself every day:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
~Lamentations 3:22-23