Clean Slates and Fresh Starts

My wife loves Hallmark movies, so I have seen plenty of period pieces that focus around the one-room school houses of our past.  Before pencil and paper days in school, students had slates and chalk.  When you finished something or you made a mistake, you swiped the slate and it was clean and ready to use again.  It became so familiar that we all know that a “clean slate” means that you get a fresh start.

I love school calendars for the “clean slate” of the new year.  Kids have ultimate goals, but every year, they count a part of those goals as complete.  Every August, that sense of fresh starts motivates me.  It’s an opportunity to create a new schedule, a different pattern or practice, a new relationship, or a new life.  I can remember when I stepped onto my college campus.  It was the first time in a decade where my identity was not related to my parents (who both taught school in my district).  In every possible way, I felt like I had been given a clean slate for identity.  I could start over.  I felt truly free!

I made new friends and fresh mistakes.  I found good opportunities and discovered some flaws in my own skills.  In all those experiences, God was working in my heart and I settled some old struggles.  We often think that those fresh starts aren’t possible without a move, a promotion, a key transition, or a new stage of life.  But God is ALWAYS ready for a fresh start.  It’s never too late, the distance is never too far.

So, will you take advantage of the clean slate of this season.  Lots of people will try to refresh their walk with the Lord.  Will you be one of them?  Can you think of a better time to begin?