We all know in our heads that when the calendar changed at 12:00 AM Monday morning, there were really no major changes in the universe. We know that life goes on, oftentimes exactly as it has in the past.\u00a0However, there is a sense where we can reflect on and consider what, if any changes we need to make in our lives. There is the reminder that our God is the God of second chances. We can think about the truth that He does make all things new. We can be reminded that as Christians, we live in the land of beginning again.\u00a0In this New Year, we have the opportunity to choose whether or not we will focus on the struggles in our lives. Will we live in the present and choose not to be bound by past hurts, disappointments, and dejections?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The real question is not will we experience pain, the real question is what will we do with it? Will we allow it to defeat us, define us, or depress us? We can choose with our Brother Paul to do our best to forget about what is behind a move forward toward our eternal goal. This is one of the great blessings of the New Year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
May God bless you in this New Year. May He give you good health, much happiness, and a heart that is on fire for Him. I love you all very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He came to my desk with a quivering lip. The lesson was done. \u201cDear Teacher, I want a new leaf,\u201d he said, \u201cI have spoiled this one.\u201d I took the old leaf, stained and blotted, And gave him a new one all unspotted, And into his sad eyes smiled, \u201cDo better, now, my child.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I went to the throne with a quivering soul\u2014The Old Year was done. \u201cDear Father, hast Thou a new leaf for me? I have spoiled this one.\u201d He took the old leaf, stained and blotted, And gave me a new one all unspotted, And into my sad heart smiled, \u201cDo better, now, my child.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Helen Field Fischer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We all know in our heads that when the calendar changed at 12:00 AM Monday morning, there were really no major changes in the universe. We know that life goes on, oftentimes exactly as it has in the past.\u00a0However, there is a sense where we can reflect on and consider what, if any changes we… Continue reading A New Leaf For Me<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin","category-marks-messages","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2840,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions\/2840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tannerchurchofchrist.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}