Putting on the New

 

As January rolls on, I still enjoy seeing the displays of student’s goals for the new year in our preschool. I have shared a couple of them with you already. As I walk the halls and read with joy their vision for their lives, I am reminded that often our goals reflect areas in our life where we feel we have fallen short or failed. If my goal is to lose weight, it is because I have some weight to lose. If my goal is to get into better physical condition, it is because I have failed to exercise adequately. If my goal is to pay more attention to my spiritual life, it is because I feel that I have neglected this aspect of my life. And if my goal is to “learn how to not snatch a toy from my sister”, well, I have probably been doing some toy snatching from time to time.

That is how we work for change in our lives, no matter our age. We make a decision about one something we wish to do differently, or do better, or to not do at all, and we focus on finding a new way to live. We can’t tackle our whole list at once, there is not enough energy in us to keep us from being overwhelmed and leaving ourselves defeated. But we can work one goal at a time and move a little closer to the person we wish to be.

We read in Ephesians the call, “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Becoming the person we wish to be, becoming the person we are created to be, grows out a commitment to “putting off the old” and “putting on the new”. It is not easy. It is sometimes painful. But it is always worth it.

Peace.