Resolutions for a new day.

I tend to get into a funk around New Years. While I love the idea of new beginnings, it's hard to get excited about that in January. I'm sure there's a logic behind the calendar (I have a faint memory of learning about it in Latin class), but whoever decided to start the year in the middle of winter didn't live in New England. It's a time to get excited about what's ahead, when what's ahead are several long, cold months that make me want to hibernate more than celebrate.

But it's more than anticipating the cold. It's anticipating failure. I don't make New Years resolutions anymore, because I never keep them. But I still look ahead at a year where there is so much I'd like to do differently, to be differently, and it feels so intimidating. The growth that I want to see in my life won't automatically happen because it's 2013. It will take time, and struggle, and prayer, and pain - just like it has every year before. I will let others down and let myself down, and no decision I make today will prevent that. And that's why today, the day of new starts, all I wanted to do was stay in bed. But something else came to mind this morning; a promise that pulled me out of my funk (and out of bed, thankfully):

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.

I say to myself,

"The Lord is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him."

- Lamentations 3:22-24

 I don't have to "take on" this year until I mess up and have to wait for the next year so that I can start over again. Every day is new, and God is faithful every day. So instead of one new year, I have 365 new days ahead of me. And I can get excited about that.