Fresh Starts

I have always loved the start of the school year. When I was in school I loved the shopping trips to buy school clothes or fabric to make school clothes. I also loved my school supplies - the sharpness of the unbroken crayons in the box, all the blank sheets of paper and construction paper, and organizing my pencils and pens in the pencil box. Later, in preparing for my children's start to school we had to decide what binder and back pack best projected their personality (and that of their favorite cartoon character or super hero). When I became a teacher I loved decorating my room and organizing the school supplies purchased from the PTO. (Buying school supplies isn't as fun as it used to be.) I awaited the first day of school with nervous anxiety about meeting my students dressed in their back to school finery. On that first day both students and teacher started the year with a clean slate. I heard a speaker say today that everyone is an honor student on the first day of school!

Although I am no longer in the classroom but at the central office, I still have an appreciation for fresh starts and I miss being in the classroom on that first day of school. I am the one in yellow in the picture. My friend and coworker, Diana, is seated on the right, and my friend, Mary, is in the middle. She retired at the end of the last school year. Retirement has given her a fresh start. She is busier now than she was when she working! We met for lunch at Cheddars after our district Convocation which is the official start to our new school year. I guess that's what made me think of "fresh starts."

I also worship a God who specializes in new beginnings and fresh starts. He says: Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17