Advent, Day 20: you can always start over

It’s the holidays, and with the New Year around the corner, I bet more than a few of us are already inspecting ourselves, asking what needs to change.

My dear friend Rachel had some really sweet and wise words for me the other day.

She reminded me, with a quote that I’d actually posted days earlier, to be soft with myself and with the people I love most around me.

It’s the end of the semester, so as we gear up for the holidays and all the warm feelings they bring, we are also settling the end of a few intense months of grad school.

Travis is working hard to get his last papers done, I’m working (so hard) to try to remind myself to be more patient and more available to my boys.

But in the midst of all of it, I’ve still yelled.

I’ve still gotten frustrated over something small, I’ve still given an eye roll or snarled an insinutaion here and there.

And while I was writing to remind myself to be softer, to be kinder to my own human soul,

I was bearing it down with the guilt that I’d spent another day not being as loving and perfect as I’d hoped to be.

Remember those ancient words that tell us grace comes fresh to us every dawn?

It means you and I get to start over.

It means I can tell my boys that I’m sorry for yesterday and that I’ll try again this time,

that traditions can start new

and that every single moment can be

an opportunity to transform.

Can people change one day to the next?

With the celebration of Advent and the coming of

the Infant King,

yes,

yes we can.

Hallelujah for fresh mornings.