A Clean Slate

A Clean Slate

Have you noticed the increased popularity of chalkboards these days? People are turning everything into chalkboards by using chalkboard paint. The paint comes in lots of different colors and is fairly easy to use so it’s a good project for even the less “crafty” person. I’ve even seen entire walls painted with chalkboard paint, which gives a whole new meaning to kids marking on the walls. As the mother of six that may have been a good approach although I’m not so sure my brood would have been satisfied to stay in the lines so to speak.

Back in the day a chalkboard was simply called a slate. It was basically just a piece of slate with a frame around it. Schoolchildren would write their lessons on it and when completed and graded they would wipe it clean. When it was time for a new lesson they would start over with a clean slate.

One of my favorite scriptures is Lamentations 3:22-23 that says, It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Wow, how awesome is that?  God’s love and mercy isn’t just a one time thing or something He hands out occasionally when He feels particularly benevolent but it’s new each and every day.  Every morning is met with a new beginning, a fresh start, a clean slate. It makes no difference how far we missed it the day before or how far we marked out of the lines. I John 1:9 tells us if we ask God is faithful and just to forgive us. The mistakes are gone, completely erased. He will clean our slate. I don’t know about you but that makes me breathe a big sigh of relief.

I like this quote by Bill Keane. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”

We have all struggled with the failures of yesterday. You may have blown your diet, spoke out of turn, hurt a loved, given in to temptation and maybe even sinned. God doesn’t want us to live in yesterday’s defeat but in today’s possibility. He has given you the gift of a clean slate. I don’t know what your chalkboard looked like yesterday, but I know what it looks like today.  Chalk in hand you can rewrite today.

There is always hope in God.

Blessings,
Sherry