Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!

It hardly seems possible that we stand once more on the threshold of another new year. But it is. It may have been in some ways a bad year, but, in other ways, it was a very good year.

I hope we can all forget the bad and remember the good, as we look forward to this next year. Thus, I am including here an article by yours truly and some poems which I had previously published in my New Years edition of my ezine, Inspirational Success Tips on forgetting what's behind and looking forward to what's ahead. No matter what 2016 has brought for you, I encourage you to lift up your heads and go forward with hope into the coming year. I realize that some events of the past year, either news events or personal events could tend to leave us with a fearful and bleak outlook. But let us hear the words of the Christmas angels, "Fear not," for, as Longfellow wrote, "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep--The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with Peace on Earth, Good will to men!".

POEM 1: "The New Year Approaches"

by Claytia Doran

Behold, the New Year approaches

And brings with it a story

Of new beginnings and resolutions,

Of promises in all their glory.

It tells a tale of yesterdays

And brings with it a song

Of an old acquaintance we forgot

And friends we've loved all along.

It brings the promise of a Savior,

Who died for all our sins ~

His promise of a new tomorrow

For all, as the New Year begins.

Behold, the New Year approaches

And brings with it a solution

To all the questions we may have

Of new beginnings and resolutions.

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New Year's Day is every man's birthday.

~Henry Ward Beecher (said that.) MORE NEW YEARS QUOTES

(funny and un): From Quote Garden:

"Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to." --Bill Vaughn

"A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other." --Author Unknown

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves." --Bill Vaughan

"Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbors, and let every New-Year find you a better Man." --Benjamin Franklin

"No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam. " --Charles Lamb

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us." --Hal Borland

"The merry year is born

Like the bright berry from the naked thorn."

--Hartley Coleridge

"New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights." --Hamilton Wright Mabie

"The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!" ---Edward Payson Powell

"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right." --Oprah Winfrey

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

--Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

For more: Visit the Quotes Garden page

FORGET IT! By James M. Becher

FORGET IT! By me, James M. Becher, from my book, "Principles of the Kingdom, God's Success Principles."

FORGET YOUR FAILURES AND MOVE ON TOWARD YOUR DREAMS.

It is a fact of life that all of us will inevitably fail in something in someway at sometime along the bumpy road of life. When this happens, we need to be able to forget it and move on toward our dreams and goals.

To quote Norman Vincent Peale: "One of the most important of all skills is that of forgetting. It is said a man is what he...eats. A man is what he forgets....to be happy and successful you must cultivate the ability to say to yourself--forget it! Memory is one of our greatest facilities, [and] It is a great skill to be able to be selective and say, 'I will hold this...this other, I will cast from me."

Why is this so important? Because, and I speak from experience, if you don't, the memories and regrets will eat at your mind like a cancer and will paralyze your progress to the extent that you will never be able to move ahead. And, after all, the failure you are remembering with so much regret may not be as big of a setback as you think.

To quote the mother superior in "The Sound of Music," when the Lord closes a door, He opens a window." But we will never see the window if we are focused upon the closed door.

But, what can we do, if, having tried to forget it, the thoughts persist in our mind? To further quote from Dr. Peale: "There are only 2 things to do:

1. Do everything you reasonably can about it,
2. Then practice forgetting it. Walk away from it in your thoughts. Conceive of it as lying back there growing ever more dim against the horizon as each day carries you further from it."

3. But, not only must we walk away from the old, but walk toward the new. Start filling your mind with new ideas and prospects for success. If you find your mind blank, try praying. Ask God to fill your mind with fresh new ideas. Then trust that He will. In the words of the Apostle, Paul in Phil.3:13, "Forgetting what is behind and pressing forward to that which is ahead, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

   Of course, Paul was talking here to believers and if you haven't yet made that all-important first step of accepting Jesus as your Savior, that would be the place to start--and what better time to do so, than at the new year? -- to be born again as the new year is born. (For more see the featured lens below:)

Poem-2 Help me believe in beginnings (1st New Years Prayer)

(author unknown)

Help me believe in beginnings

God of history and of my heart,

so much has happened to me during these whirlwind days:

I've known death and birth;

I've been brave and scared;

I've hurt, I've helped;

I've been honest, I've lied;

I've destroyed, I've created;

I've been with people, I've been lonely;

I've been loyal, I've betrayed;

I've decided, I've waffled;

I've laughed and I've cried.

You know my frail heart and my frayed history -

and now another day begins.

O God, help me to believe in beginnings

and in my beginning again,

no matter how often I've failed before.

Help me to make beginnings:

to begin going out of my weary mind

into fresh dreams,

daring to make my own bold tracks

in the land of now;

to begin forgiving

that I may experience mercy;

to begin questioning the unquestionable

that I may know truth

to begin disciplining

that I may create beauty;

to begin sacrificing

that I may make peace;

to begin loving

that I may realize joy.

Help me to be a beginning to others,

to be a singer to the songless,

a storyteller to the aimless,

a befriender of the friendless;

to become a beginning of hope for the despairing,

of assurance for the doubting,

of reconciliation for the divided;

to become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed,

of comfort for the sorrowing,

of friendship for the forgotten;

to become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn,

of sweetness for the soured,

of gentleness for the angry,

of wholeness for the broken,

of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.

Help me to believe in beginnings,

to make a beginning,

to be a beginning,

so that I may not just grow old,

but grow new

each day of this wild, amazing life

you call me to live

with the passion of Jesus Christ.

A New You for A New Year

by Rev. Robert Schuller from his daily devotional book "Living Powerfully One Day At A Time."

"I am come that they might hove life, and might have

it more abundantly."(John 10:10)

Every new year is like the beginning of a totally new life!

it's exciting! Today is really the first day of the rest of

your life. It's a chance to begin all over again.

Awhile back I was interviewed in a radio station in Chicago,

Illinois. There was just the interviewer and myself in a

little radio room. We looked through a glass window at the

engineer, who threw us the signal to begin. The interviewer

began... "We have with us today, Dr. Robert Schuller," etc.

Then he asked me a question. Just after be bad asked it,

he clapped his hands and said, "I'm sorry, the engineer is

telling me that something didn't go right.

We'll have to start over." He looked at the engineer and said:

"Let's go again in about five minutes." Then he turned to me and

remarked, "This is a chance to start over.

You know," be added, "it isn't often in life that you get a

chance to start over again."

After five minutes, the engineer gave the signal and we

started again. "Good morning, we have with us today, Dr.

Schuller, etc.m etc., etc...."

It isn't often in life that you get a chance to start all over

again. I believe that every day is a chance to start all over

again. Start living a new life today! A New You in the New year.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

I choose to live it abundantly.

-------------------------------------------

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Poem 3: 2nd New Years Prayer

By Helen Steiner Rice

God grant us this year a wider view,

So we see others' faults through the eyes of You.

Teach us to judge not with hasty tongue,

Neither the adult ... nor the young.

Give us patience and grace to endure

And a stronger faith so we feel secure;

And instead of remembering, help us forget

The irritations that caused us to fret.

Freely forgiving for some offense

And finding each day a rich recompense,

In offering a friendly, helping hand

And trying in all ways to understand,

That all of us whoever we are ...

Are trying to reach "an unreachable star."

For the great and small ...

The good and bad,

The young and old ...

The sad and glad,

Are asking today,

"Is life worth living?"

And the answer is only in "loving" and "giving."

For only "Love" can make man kind

And Kindness of Heart brings Peace of Mind,

And by giving love we can start

This year to lift the clouds of hate and fear.

Thoughtful New Years Humor / 3rd NEW YEARS PRAYER (unknown)

(Parts of this "Prayer" are funny, and parts are sublime.)

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your

cardiologist, your gastro-enterologist, your urologist, your

proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your

plumber and the I.R.S

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs and your

stocks not fall; and may your blood pressure, your

tri-glycerides, your cholesterol, your white blood count and

your mortgage interest not rise.

May New Year's Eve find you seated around the table,

together with your beloved family and cherished friends. May

you find the food better, the environment quieter, the cost

much cheaper, and the pleasure much more fulfilling than

anything else you might ordinarily do that night.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others

see in you delight them. May someone love you enough to

forgive your faults, be blind to your blemishes, and tell

the world about your virtues.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until

you finish dinner, may the commercials on TV not be louder

than the program you have been watching, and may your check

book and your budget balance - and include generous amounts

for charity.

May you remember to say "I love you" at least once a day to

your spouse, your child, your parent, your siblings; but not

to your secretary, your nurse, your masseuse, your

hairdresser or your tennis instructor.

And may we live in a world at peace and with the awareness

of God's love in every sunset, every flower's unfolding

petals, every baby's smile, every lover's kiss, and every

wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart.

---author unknown

What are your thoughts for the new year?

Deborah Brooks Langford from Brownsville,TX on January 01, 2018:

this is so wonderful to read. God bless you .. never quit writing like this.. Happy New Year and Be Blessed

Debbie

Henny on December 29, 2014:

Until I found this I thhugot I'd have to spend the day inside.

madhuha on January 03, 2012:

Good one. Thanks for sharing this lens. Wish You Happy New Year.

anonymous on December 31, 2011:

Nice lens.

UKGhostwriter on May 03, 2011:

I prefer Christmas celebrations to New Year ...being kissed by strangers isn't my cup of tea!