Remember when you were a child, and you got new shoes? If you were like me, I wanted them to stay looking “brand new!” It never lasted very long once I began to use them as they were meant to finally be used — going to school. As long as I stayed in Sunday school and church and the classroom, the shoes continued to look new. But “school” also meant “playground,” and it wasn’t long until the new shoes began to show signs of “use!”
Even more than new shoes, I treasured new workbooks — the kind you write in when you are solving arithmetic problems or working in other subjects answering questions. For as many years as I received workbooks in school, I promised myself that “this time” I would keep them nice and neat. And as long as I had workbooks, they always—inevitably—got smeared! Why? Why couldn’t I keep them “perfect?”
I couldn’t keep them perfect because I was using them for their intended purpose—to try to learn something that I didn’t already know—which, without fail, leads to some wrong answers that must be erased (with whatever eraser was available at the time) in order to be able to record the correct answer.
My experience with workbooks is similar to my track record with New Year’s resolutions. I take stock as a new year approaches and consider what changes in my life and activities would be desirable and healthy and—faithful!! (It seems that often the changes I feel the need to make in the rising new year are the same ones that I felt the need to make last year. But don’t expect me to tell you what they are!)
Let’s just say that I will strive to become a more faithful child of God—a disciple of Jesus, the Christ! May the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, and my pleas for the forgiveness of my failings be acceptable to God.
