We can breath now and let out that big sigh of relief…*SIGH*…All the rushing around before Christmas, getting stressed out and making sure that everything was ready in time, is now all over. The “day” has been and gone.

We are still finding wrapping paper in places we hadn’t opened presents…There is still that brussel sprout somewhere on the floor that pinged off the plate during the Christmas meal (funny how it pings in one direction and it ends up in a completely different place. I’m sure it will come to light some day!) The children are back to arguing over who wants to play with what present (they seem to have more energy now after the event than before, and we are absolutely wiped out!)

Do you know what day is coming up next though? New. Years. Day. We start to prepare ourselves in a different way. Instead of preparing ourselves physically like we did for Christmas…making sure that we had everything in order, we prepare ourselves mentally. We think about the year that we have had and wonder what year we are going to get. Will we have a good year filled with wonderful surprises and blessings, or will it be a year where yet again a loved one is lost, or we face some kind of difficult circumstance that we have to work through.

This is the time of the year where we start to count down the days to when we can start things over again. Let’s forget about the year that we have gone through and look forward to starting afresh. We think about the New Year’s resolutions that we could make and wonder how long we can keep them for this time. We perceive the New Year as a time where we think that things will change. A time where we say we will do things differently.

Instead of thinking that we could actually change right here, right now, we carry on in our own sweet way and justify our current thinking with, “the New Year is coming soon, so I will re-start then. What does it matter?”

Why wait for the New Year though? What is so special about it? I mean, in reality, it really is just another day. If you want to make a difference to your life, why not just start right now? Why wait until the world says it starts on 1st January?

How you change what is happening in your life and the circumstances around you is determined on how you perceive situations and how you learn from them.

How you perceive what is happening in your life is what makes you feel whether you have succeeded in making a change in your life for the better.

Do you see that you have failed as a parent when you lost it for two seconds because the kids were screaming at each other? Or do you see that you are a parent that is so physically tired that you don’t give yourself a break because you always put your kids first?

Do you know what helps me to think that I don’t need to wait until January 1st to start afresh? Why I can start afresh at anytime? I have God’s amazing grace with me. This is why my perspective is different. I know that I can get through any day with God by my side. If I mess up, which often happens, I know that God is there ready and waiting for me with His abundant grace.

When we have a grip of God’s grace, we can then learn to take hold of our messes from the previous day and use them to clean up on our act for the next day.

Why don’t you join me in starting afresh right now and take hold of that amazing Grace that God will give you?