Don't Forget the Clean Slate

Well, it is that time of year and I am getting ready to head back into the classroom.  This week I will be busy readying desks, doing lesson plans, updating files, and decorating classroom walls. There is alot of preparation that goes into getting ready to start a school year.  This will be my thirteenth year teaching in a classroom and each year is a "clean slate" in my book.  I want my students to come in knowing that it is a brand new year....what happened last year (good or bad) is well, last year.  This is a new year and we each are starting the year with a CLEAN SLATE.  Each individual will decide what they write on their own personal slate for the school year 2012-2013. 
This concept made me think about family relationships. Families can become so familiar with one another that it is often each other that they hurt.  Why is it that we tend to be kinder to strangers than to those in our own family?  Wives, why do we become cross with our husband, but not our bosses?  Why are our children nicer to their friends than they are to their siblings?  Kind of strange, huh? 
It just seems like the opposite should be true...our families should get the best of us especially in how we treat them.  The clean slate concept should be used daily in our homes.  We need to realize every day is a new day and we should start clean with one another.
Lamentations 3:22 - 23 says, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."
I sure am glad that my Heavenly Father gives me a clean slate each day.  I know I disappoint Him and I do not always please Him as I should, but He loves me and each day He shows compassion and mercy to me.  His example should be one that we all follow in our homes with our loved ones.  It just seems the least we could do after what He does for us.
This wasn't a long post today, but rather a random thought I had the other day as I thought about my upcoming school year. So, as I walk into my classroom and I give my students "clean slates" it will be done after waking up that morning and doing the same for my husband and boys. 
Here's to a great school year...clean slates and all!

From my Heart,
Robyn