The Do Over

Why is it that the very trait that we see in someone else, that is driving us crazy, is often a trait that we have? Have you ever noticed that?

For example, one of my kids tends to not be very patient and it can drive me nuts!! Ya know what? I am not a very patient person!!!

I have another kid who often doesn't put things away. Lately I have noticed that the very things he is not putting away are the same items of my own that I am picking up at the end of the day.
And it can drive you bonkers!

Years ago, maybe 20,  this movie came out about a guy who relived the same day over and over and over again, it was called Groundhog Day. We went to see this movie with friends and it was one of those times that if we hadn't been with friends I would have walked out. The movie drove me absolutely nuts! I couldn't stand it!

It was kind of funny for a while, but then it became annoying and then downright boring, because it was the same thing over and over with only very small changes as the character chose to make them.

Now I really don't remember much of it, because I truly disliked it so much I didn't want to remember, or ever see it again.
What I do remember is the guy was pretty much a jerk. And as he got to relive the same day he could keep being a jerk, or he could do something different, be nice to someone, help someone, whatever and it didn't take him too long to figure out that no matter what he did one day that it would all be erased. No one but him would remember and he would start again the next day.

Eventually he did a lot of self improvement, and became a much nicer person as he learned what people really thought of him, as he saw the benefits of helping others.
At least that is what I remember of the movie.

I was thinking about that as I woke up this morning after having yelled at one of my kids the night before. A trait that I loathe, and one I am working on constantly.
This morning I was thinking of Anne of Green Gables (one of my all time favorite book series and I even love the movies) and there is a part where Anne is with Marilla and as they are talking about a mistake Anne had made, Marilla reminds her that tomorrow is a new day, fresh with no mistakes in it.

Then I started thinking about Groundhog Day and how the main character had a fresh chance each time he woke up to live that day differently. He could choose to live it better than he had before or not. And he sometimes choose badly.

Our lives are made up of days. We don't get to live a day over, but each day we wake up to a new, fresh one, with no mistakes. We get to choose what we are going to do with it. Sometimes we will choose many good things and sometimes we will just plain blow it.

Our Heavenly Father also lets us start new. I think He is waiting for us to wake up, see His amazing new day and decide what good we are going to do. When I remind myself to think of it that way, I am much more likely to not only be thankful for the new day, but more determined to try and conquer the bad habits and find the good.

I am finding that when I start my morning thanking Him and spending time reading the scriptures and the messages He has for me, I hear His voice more. I need that voice. I desperately need that voice to guide me through my day and through my actions.

So the movie that drove me absolutely nuts, is actually a lot like my life. I can start each day new, fresh with no mistakes. God is on my side and wants me and you and all of us to succeed in becoming a new and different person through what we learn each day. The changes may be very small and almost imperceptible to us, but they aren't to Him. And when we mess up, which we all inevitably do, He forgives us and loves us into a whole new day.