Today Is the First . . . .
In 1969 John Denver recorded the song “Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Life.” Fifty years later on this first day of 2019 is a good time to be thinking about that idea. How do we want to spend this first day of the new year, this first day of the rest of our lives? Let’s think about one thing that Paul told the Christians in Rome:
Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21
Some evil is easy to spot. Other evil is not so easy to see. And some of us get more mixed up about that than other people do. In Isaiah God warned us:
Woe to those who call evil good,
and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light
and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise
in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
Isaiah 5:20-21
Elsewhere in Romans, God teaches us to:
Let love be without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil;
cling to what is good.
Romans 12:9
Homeschooling mamas have an opportunity (and an obligation) to:
. . . examine everything carefully;
hold fast to that which is good;Â
abstain from every form of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22
And they have an opportunity and an obligation to examine carefully their children’s books and toys and entertainment and every other kind of influence so they can “hold fast to that which is good and abstain from every form of evil.”
I find such comfort and hope in the verse from Romans 12. In addition to clinging to good and abstaining from evil, we can actually overcome evil with good!
Ray and I had a sweet and very rainy anniversary on December 27. One of the young women who cares for my mom when I am not here was able to stay with her while we did some shopping and went out to eat.
Ray held an umbrella over my head as we dashed from a store door to the car door. Suddenly I got drenched when the umbrella swooshed upward into folded position. With both the car key and the umbrella in the same hand, Ray had accidentally pushed the button on the handle. I hurried to the car while Ray found his dropped car key on the soaking sidewalk. I was so drenched I wondered where I could find a hairdryer before we went to dinner. I didn’t even have a comb!
Later, when I was telling our story, I said that Ray’s pants got wet up to his calf. He told me that they were wetter than that. Even his handkerchief was wet when he pulled it out of his back pocket later that evening!
As we drove past the courthouse square in the town where we had gone to dinner, we saw evidence of people doing good — and overcoming evil. Here are some rainy photos to prove it.
When we hear of evil in 2019, let’s fight back by doing something good. What a great — and powerful — way to spend this, the first day of the rest of our lives and all the days after that.
Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21