We were pond side.  A volunteer at the nature center showed us a tiny turtle.  She claimed to have found the SAME one twenty times that month.  I had never found one.  I asked her if maybe she’d found twenty different ones.  Silence.

We all have a tendency to think nothing ever changes.

Maybe we’re wrong.

Jeremiah wrote, “Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:23).

We are greeted with new burdens each day, fresh ones, but there is also abundant grace to meet them.

God put that in there to remind us that no two days are ever alike, but one thing is sure, he is faithful and there is abundant grace available.

He wants us to know that everyday offers a fresh chance.  Opportunities to make new, better choices abound.

We keep thinking we’ve found the same turtle.  We keep thinking we’ve awakened to the same relationships.  Possess the same health.  Work the same job.  We’re wrong.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  God is faithful and merciful.

Like most, you probably want something new.  Something fresh.  You want your partner to change.  You want to change, to grow.  You can.  God is merciful and he can give you the strength you need.

Jeremiah wrote his words in tears in the pouring rain.  He was experiencing the night of the soul.  It seemed like everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong.  He wrote before and while his people were taken into Babylonian captivity.  He urged the people do deal peacefully with those God had used to chastise them.  He encouraged them to trust God despite their circumstances.

Don’t wait to start feeling better.  Get better right now.  You don’t need another degree to feel better, or a million dollars.  Everything doesn’t have to get fixed before you can feel better.  His mercies are available right now!  Today.  At this moment.  God has all the mercy you’ll ever need, all the time.  Yes, not even though you’ve fallen on your face, but because you have.

The only thing possibly keeping you from newness is that you lack a game plan and a plan to take massive action.  You also need a change of mindset.

Pray, “Lord, help me to see this situation with fresh eyes.”

“Give me the courage to trust you and the desire to take action on the things you show me.”

Imagine if we let our loved ones off the hook the way God let us off the hook and offered them mercy the way God offers us mercy?

Imagine if we offered a co-worker another chance and another?

Imagine if we focused on what we have and not on what we don’t have?

Imagine if we accepted the common place as a fresh, new gift each day?

Everything is new everyday.  You’ve never been this old, and you’ll never be this young again.

I guess it had never occurred to the girl at the nature center that more than one tiny turtle lived in the same pond.

But there are lots of miracles and often they congregate in the same place.  

Life truly is amazing if you think about it.  What do you think?