New Beginnings

Yesterday, my church welcomed its new pastor and his family. This will be the youngest pastor I have ever had. We will be his first church as head pastor. He has a lovely wife and two very small children (6 months and 2 years). I hope this will be my church's new beginning and this family's beginning to a wonderful new experience. We have had some rough spots over the last year within our church. I have been upset with the direction for sometime now. You see this church seems like home. My family has been in this church for many many years. I hated to see it deteriorate. I feel this man and his family are ready to light a fire in our church (and its members) so we become the church that God wants us to be.

In a couple of weeks, school for everyone in my household will start again. I will be finishing up my associates degree, Jason will be starting his second year of Engineering, Amanda will be starting 11th grade, Tyler will be starting 8th grade and Madison will be starting 4K.  Another set of new beginning in our lives.

Although I will be finishing up my associates degree, it will be the start of a new school and four year degree for me-starting in January. This will be the end of a long-very long process I started when I graduated from high school 21 years ago. I started my associates degree, stopped, started again, stopped and started again...now I am almost at the end of this road. In January, I hope to be starting at Liberty University and will be majoring in education with a minor in church ministry. I am not sure what the future will hold with this degree but I feel I am being led in this direction.

Jason's hard work and dedication to his degree has been evident in his making the dean's list every semester. This summer term has been a challenging one for him. I know he is glad it is almost over. Again, we don't know what the future holds for him (and our family) once he is finished-maybe a four year school, maybe a new job.

Amanda and Tyler are one step closer to graduation. I hope this year will hold new beginnings for them both. For Amanda, I hope this is the year she chooses great people to associate with and that there will be one person in her peer group that has a tremendous positive influence in her life. Sometimes we need someone our own age to point us in the right direction. She has this inner beauty that I hope she will let shine through. For Tyler, I hope this is the year that school will make sense (click) for him and he will see the point of school for him. He is a very special boy and I know there are great things ahead for him.

Madison is just starting this education journey. She is a very  bright little girl who is excited about the upcoming year. For Madison, I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful educational experience and that she will flourish.

Today, I am thankful for new beginnings-not just educational ones, not just new jobs, not just new people, but those times in life where we get a new start, where everything falls into place just like it should have if we had been willing to listen to what God had planned.