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Recently it seems many blogs have been changing.

The leaders they have had are turning portions of them over to others.

Now it has happened to Five Minute Friday.

We’re having some new beginnings.

This is much like real life.

We move along and in many ways, things don’t seem to change.

Yet they really do.

Our kids grow up.

Each year we notice when they have a birthday or start a new grade.

Our marriages mature

and deepen with age and work.

We learn to be honest in ways we didn’t in our youth.

We learn to encourage in ways we couldn’t in the early years.

But many of the new beginnings are silent and unnoticed.

Friends move away.  We stay.

Changes at work are often gradual.

Occasionally promotions occur to make us aware of major change.

Other changes happen as friendships wax and wane.

It’s only when something big happens that we pay attention to the fact

That our lives are changing.

New beginnings happen all the time.

We change habits.

We start over.

We learn to forgive.

We confess our sin and experience forgiveness…repeatedly.

And begin again.

The grace of GOD touches our lives in many ways.

We learn to be grateful.

As we age, GOD works to make us into a wine that is rich and sweet

And life-giving to those with whom we come in contact.

In this life, it won’t be perfect, but the process is making us more like Jesus.

In Christ we can have the courage to face new beginnings

Even if they are ones we didn’t ask for…

Or timed when we didn’t want them.

Because we know that all His purposes for us are good!

**I messed up my timing today so can’t tell you when the actual 5 minutes was up!  whoops!