"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." -Psalm 118:24
Our Daily Bread describes the time C. S. Lewis, while on a hike on a hot summer day with a friend, asked him "how best to cultivate a thankful heart toward God." The friend stopped by a brook and splashed his face with the water and said, "Why not begin with this?" Lewis would later make that moment into a "great principle" that he termed "Begin Where You Are."
When I cared for my terminally ill mother in my home years ago I learned how to live one day at a time. Each time she ended up in the hospital I thought it would be the last time. But her condition would improve enough that she would return to us until the next time. She lived for almost a year with us before her body eventually wore out altogether. Through that experience I learned that each day was a new day to begin again when I felt I'd failed at bearing the burden. Each day I had with her became a chance to grow closer to her and to love her in a way I had not before. Each day became a new beginning for us to start over because we really didn't know whether we'd get another.
I am grateful for sleep that helps to wipe the slate clean and begin again. To wake up to a brand new day in which to love and be loved, to show compassion, to do justice, and to place my trust in God.
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