“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it,” as Miss Stacy once told Anne Shirley. And after the year that was 2020, I think we need to remember that tomorrow is always fresh! We can always start again.
Looking back on 2020, there were two great things: my book, and Patty. Those are things I am glad to keep, and things I celebrate. 2020, no matter what else happened, will always be a good year because of those two things, and the things that came from them.
Patty on Christmas, with the teething toys she got.
Stacks of my book in my office.
I’ll never wish those things back.
In my family, it’s generally a good day if, at the end of it, no one ended up in the ER. And I wonder if that’s a mindset we need to take with us into 2021? The idea that our days will not be perfect all the time, which is why we need to remember what Miss Stacy told Anne—every day is a fresh chance to get it right. And maybe we need to adjust the bar for what’s considered a “good” day? If at the end of the day, everyone is home, everyone is safe, and everyone is fed, then can we call that a good day? Or at least a day that we got through and we can try again tomorrow?
I wrote this on Instagram, and I share it here because it’s true: “Most of all, I’d keep what I know to be true: that a great, good God is running this show, and while I don’t always understand what’s going on, He does. And He has plans for our salvation, happiness, and joy.”
We don’t always see the plan. I like to know the plan. I’m BIG on that. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve also realized that I’m never going to know all of it. I’m just not! I have to give these things to God. That doesn’t mean I don’t try to do my best. But as John Paul XXIII (I think?) said, “It’s your Church, Lord. I’m going to bed.”
Sometimes, the best thing we can do is turn it all over to God and go to bed.
As we head into this new year, we don’t know what will happen. But if we try, every day, to live it with God ad with intention, I think we’ll have lots of good days, good weeks, and good years.