The beginning of a new school year is upon my doorstep. There are all sorts of new adventures just waiting to be discovered. Learning’s gateway is about to open ever the wider. And me? I am ready.

Well, I am partially ready – aside from the reading curriculum I currently have spread out all over my big farm table, and aside from the organization of the daily routine schedule(s) I need to still make, and aside from needing to plan for the soon-arriving first week of school  – I am READY.

The excitement of a new school year is brimming.

Even when I was a classroom teacher, I felt that tingling of excitement every August as I prepared my classroom for the new year. I think it is because of that very word – new. Whatever trials I had then experienced in the previous year were behind me; I was always in full anticipation of the new. So far, the new this year is found – in a grade level for my Lil’ man (Kindergarten!), a Classical Conversation (CC) campus, a language arts curriculum (any people with IEW tips, feel free to comment them below) and in a preschool program at our church for my Miss Priss (so she will not be bored out of her mind while big brother is doing his thing at Classical Conversations with me).

In the beauty of this new school year, I have also found a new determination in my quest for growing my children – academically and in the Lord.

This weekend, I was able to take a step back from my every day life and step into a world of retreat. In this world, I was able to – organize and prepare for 24 weeks of CC activities with 8 other awesome ladies, have meaningful discussions about learning styles and various methods of instruction and, through conversations and prayer with new friends, was able to grow closer to the One who my heart and soul long after. I left that beautiful place of retreat – renewed and refreshed.

New.

I am ready to embrace it this year.  In every new moment, every new experience, every new – I pray that I cling ever the more to Him. I pray that I bask in the glory of every joyous new; I pray that I grow in every trial-some new. 

Are you ready to embrace the new? Is your new found in – a new school year? A new home? A new family member? A new job? A new beginning? I hope you can embrace it with the Lord at your side; He is the ultimate author and creator of new – He brings newness of life. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (emphasis mine)