Restart Button

I have a couple of girlfriends who I call on days that are rough. I hope you do too. We all need these friends, because we all have these days. You know the days I speak of. Days where the house is filled with grumbling and complaining or worse, screaming and crying, and that's just my behavior, not to mention the kids' nonsense. It's sometimes as early as 9:00 am when I know I need to call for help.

On one such day, I called and complained that I just needed a pause button. One that would give me a break, for just a few seconds.  A button that would briefly stop the madness. The world's madness, the children's madness, MY madness. Or better yet, a rewind button!  I could go back to point where it all fell apart, make a better choice and ultimately change the outcome.  She said something I've come back to time and time again. 

"Yeah, I don't think we get those buttons, but I do think Jesus gives us a restart button."

A restart button

Oh friends, I can't remember or begin to tell you how many times I've had to apologize, and ask for a restart, to my children, my husband, my friends, and most of all my God.

I'm not sure what humbles me most, the endless times He allows me to restart... not seven times but seventy-seven times. Or the length he went to purchase my many restarts... even death on a cross.  Perhaps it's the Spring flowers, or the new growth on the trees, but something keeps reminding me that when Jesus walked out of that tomb, God pressed the ultimate restart button.

I should probably end there. Enough said, right? 

But, I haven't said much here lately and I feel the need to explain.  I hit pause on this whole blog/ writing journey. It was a time in my life when I needed to be writing His words and not my own. I mean this literally. For at least 15 minutes a day I became a monk. I would diligently re-write some exact words from the Bible with the hope that as I impressed them time and time again on paper, they would also etch their way into my heart. Extreme? Maybe. Helpful? Most definitely.

I even pressed pause on Facebook for a while. I tried to take my hands away from my phone, and put them back into the pile of laundry that needed to be folded, or onto the family card game that needed to be played. My eyes were on the faces in front of me, instead of the ones that were miles and years away. Sure, I missed announcements of engagements, newborn babies, who worked out, and what's for dinner. But, the minute I logged back on, I missed the calm that came from unplugging.

While all of these were wise decisions, I still felt a nudge to keep listening, keep thinking, and most of all keep writing.

So I sit here in the dark of night, searching this bright screen for the, "restart button." Hoping that anyone reading won't mind giving me the same grace my Heavenly Father offers me time and time again. I don't always accept it as soon as I should, but the alternative is to allow rot and decay to set in. So for this moment, I'm choosing a new creation, a clean slate. I'm choosing to start again... Knowing full well that I may need to make this choice again in the next 10 seconds... Thanking my Savior that I can, because of all He did.

Truth~

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 
~Philippians 2:8 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ~1 John 1:9

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here! 
~2 Corinthians 5:17