New Every Morning
Editorial Perspective
Jeremiah, when writing the Bible book of Lamentations, reminds us of the Lord’s great love, mercies, compassions and faithfulness which are “new every morning” (see Lamentations 3:22,23). Because of this assurance, we can know that God understands and is with us when we need encouragement after relapsing into an addiction. He is not interested in destroying our hope, rather He keeps saying at the beginning of each new day, “You can do it. Don’t give up. I am with you and ‘I can keep you from falling’ (see Jude 1:24).”.
Some 12 Step groups offer “One Day” tokens to those who come to their meetings and are just starting or restarting their “sobriety / clean time.” Yes, new beginnings are possible “because of God’s great love and mercies.”
The story is told of two friends who had just finished their shopping. One confessed that no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t stop eating a bag of potato chips every day. The other person noticed three bags of chips in her shopping cart and suggested that she make a decision to not eat any potato chips for just one day. Then decide not to eat any the next day. The challenge wasn’t to stop eating the chips forever which would have seemed impossible after many years of eating a bag full a day. Several weeks later they saw each other at the gym and the friend who couldn’t stop eating potato chips said she was no longer eating potato chips and after the third day threw them all away.
Each and every new morning / day can be a new beginning. When added together they can lead to weeks, months and years of freedom from obsessive thinking and compulsive harmful behaviors.
Ray Nelson, MDiv, MSPH