How can I overcome my past mistakes?

Each day provides a new opportunity to begin again; to start over. The older we get the more valuable this is. In college I took a number of art classes (drawing, painting and basic design). Whenever I started to create a new picture or design, inevitably I found myself wanting to start over. There was always something I wanted to change. Such is true in life. Almost every day we wish we could re-do or re-say something. Fortunately, God is forgiving of our past mistakes. The hard part is forgiving ourselves.

Recently for Christmas, my nephew received a magnetic picture toy that brought back a childhood memory. I remember getting one of these that depicted a bare-faced, bald-headed man. I was supposed to use the magnetic pencil to drag the metal shavings to give the man a hairdo, mustache or beard. It was a clever toy, but I was never able to get the man to look like their model pictures.

A true artist never ends up with what he or she thought they would have. Creative art is about taking the feeble brush strokes and drawings of the moment and assembling them to make lasting impressions. Good art is about turning ordinary scribbles and patterns into images that convey an extraordinary message.

There’s something about a white canvas or clean sheet of paper that stimulates the creative mind of an artist. It’s what isn’t there that unlocks the many new, untried possibilities. Likewise, your life is full of untried possibilities. Whatever you did with yesterday’s “canvas,” today provides you with a chance to make it better, say it differently or start over.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

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