I am motivated most in the evenings and first thing in the morning and I'll tell you why. In the evening, the day is almost over and I reflect back on what went well. Things like being patient with my kids or loving my husband well. I also reflect on what I did wrong and how selfish I was at times. This is when I decide that I am going to do better the next day and it gives me hope.
First thing in the morning I am full of that hope for a new day. I love that when I first get out of bed, I haven't been impatient, frustrated or selfish.........yet. And then my husband wakes the kids up for school and the whirlwind begins. Before I know it, I'm frustrated, impatient and wishing the kids would hurry up so I can get them to school and get on with my day. My Day. Selfish. It makes me feel yucky just writing it.
Thankfully, I have the Lord's grace and mercy. Both of those things are new for me every day and He knows I need them. He knows you need them too. Don't feel bad about starting over. Start over every day and trust the Lord to help you make each day new and better than the one before.
I don't often think of the Old Testament first when I want a verse to encourage. I often go right to the New Testament where I can read the words that came right from Jesus. Today I want to point you to Lamentations 3:21-23. It says, "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 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."
We don't have to be consumed by guilt over how we treated our kids or husband or coworker or the lady at the grocery store who held up the line for 20 minutes for a price check. Acknowledge it please, be broken over it definitely, but don't live there. Scripture tells us that because of the Lord's love for us we don't have to be consumed by those things. His compassions will never fail. Those compassions are things like grace and mercy and they are new for us each and every day.
I pray that today you will find the Lord's grace and mercy to be new and refreshing and that even if you are starting over.....again, you will find the peace that only trusting in the Lord can bring.
