A Fresh Start

 When I was a child, I loved the start of a new school year after the long, endlessly hot and boring days of August. A new teacher, fresh notebooks, pencils, crayons and clothes; books to be read and things to learn... I guess I was kind of a nerd, but I always found the newness of it all to be exciting. 

When my children started school, I relived  it all; waiting for the school bus on those first crisp September mornings; taking pictures of them in their new clothes and backpacks, seeing faces full of  excitement and anxiety, anticipating for myself the break from the intense parenting of summer. 

Now, many years later, September still seems like the month of fresh starts. Perhaps it is more so for me, since I never really left school and still haven't fully retired from teaching. But I think it can signify a fresh beginning for all of us: a new season, the month when summer gradually turns into fall and the laziness of warm, slow days changes to cool mornings and new routines.

Even if not much is changing in our lives, it can be a mindset that we embrace: gain a fresh perspective, learn something new, change our thinking. We can start with today: letting go of old mental baggage: regrets and resentments, forgiving old hurts, embracing a positive, forward thinking attitude. We can take up a new backpack, one freed of the heaviness of the past, carrying only a clean slate.

We can take Paul's advice in Philippians 4: 8-9

^" Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you".