Here’s a quote that I found interesting from Edith Lovejoy Pierce:
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”
How will we face this new year? What will we write? Will it be worth the reading for those who come after us, for those over whom we have influence? Will our influence be for good or ill?
Here are some words from Paul the Apostle:
“…one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14 NASB)
I like that. I cannot undo what has been done in the past, but I can press on, I can do what I can do in each new day that God gives me. And I can remember that this day might be the day or this year might be the year that I hear the upward call of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:3-8 NASB)
If I get to January first of 2012 and this has been the character of my life, it will be a book that I would be proud for my grandchildren to read.
How about you?
