new year, new me?

Happy 2012, everyone!!  I rang in the new year by spending time with good friends; playing games and enjoying delicious food.  New Years Day was celebrated by attending my friend's church where she preached, enjoying a lunch out followed by an awesome 5mile run.  Perfect way to bring in the new year, if you ask me!!

I also celebrated the new year by doing this:

just a few inches off... 

While I like thinking about living a radically different life once the calendar switches the year, it doesn't usually happen.  Sure, I make resolutions and goals but they don't last long and I typically go back to my old habits (watching too much TV, drinking too much coffee, procrastinating too much).  Each year, I think, "Maybe this one will be different..."  Inevitably, it's not.  And I end up feeling that the new year has let me down...I'm just the same old girl I've always been. 

But maybe it's just my attitude and way of thinking...  I'm not a new person when a new year comes.  I am the same girl I've always been.  While I don't have to be a new person, I can be a better person.  And not just because it's a new year; but because it's a new day.  Each day I have a chance to live the life that God has called me to and be the woman he has created me to be. 

At my friend's church this past Sunday I was reminded of this very fact when she used Lamentations 3:22-23 in her sermon:  "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."

Each day is a new day to be a better person, to try again, to start over, to be the person God wants us to be. 

Happy New Year to you and also Happy New Day to you!!