The Lord's unfailing love and mercy shall continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. Lam. 3:22-23

This morning I work with an awareness that a goal that I had set for myself was not met. I am disappointed that I did not follow through with my plan. Now I can continue to focus on my failure Or I could acknowledge that this is an opportunity to begin afresh. We have all missed opportunities and blown more of them than we care to admit. God's mercies are new every morning. He still loves me. And now I must love myself and not look back. I need to release yesterday as just that--yesterday. It is gone. And looking back will just keep me in a cycle of chaos.
Our bedroom is on the second-level of our house and I love to open my blinds in the morning and gaze upon the wonderful old oak tree with Spanish moss dripping from the branches and blowing in the breeze, and for some unconscious reason, I took my camera and shot pictures from my bedroom window. I think I thought the images of the tree would be calming and remind me of God and His wonderful creation of which I am a part. I asked myself, "What do you see?" and instead of the beauty of the old oak tree, I felt myself become distressed by the townhome directly behind ours which kept coming into the viewfinder. Suddenly I had the realization that the townhome was actually part of God's message to me this morning. God was asking me, "Where is your focus?" So, now I ponder and choose: The oak tree or the townhome? Yesterday or new mercies fresh as the morning? I pray, "Lord, thank you for the opportunity to begin again. I choose hope. Amen. Thanking the God of second chances,
Linda