Philippians 3:13

The New Leaf

Forgetting the things which are behind. Philippians 3:13.

A Happy New Year, boys and girls! I had almost said “A Happy New Leaf,” because the other day I read a poem about new leaves which has been rhyming in my head ever since. Would you like to hear it? It was written specially for boys and girls.

“Now what is that noise,” said the glad New Year,

“What is that singular sound I hear,

As if all the paper in all the world

Was being shaken and twisted and twirled?”

“Oh! that,” said the jolly old Earth, “is the noise

Made by the millions of girls and boys,

Turning over new leaves for you,

As everyone everywhere ought to do.”

And so today I want to speak about new leaves how to turn them, and how to keep them turned.

1. Now, the first thing to do with new leaves is to turn them. Of course you can do that at any time. You don't need to wait for the New Year to do it. But somehow the New Year is a specially good time for turning them. It is a new beginning. We have been given a clean sheet and we can make up our mind to leave all the mistakes with the Old Year and not spoil the New one as We spoiled it.

And so the first thing is to turn your leaf. Try to leave something ugly behind you every year some nasty temper, some little mean or selfish way. And put something good in its place. Then each year will grow more beautiful than the last.

2. But after you have turned your leaf, the next thing to do is to keep it turned. And that is a much more difficult thing than to turn it in the first place. It is fairly easy to make good resolutions, but it is not so easy to keep them. Some years ago the first item in Punch's Almanac was this “January 1st. Good- resolution-breaking begins.” Well, I hope that won't be true of your resolutions.

This is where a great many people get into difficulties, so I want to tell you three things to do with your leaf so that you may not make the mistakes these people have made.

(1) Be sure it is properly turned. You know if you turn the leaf of a book only half over the least gust of wind may blow it back again. And that is the way with a lot of people. They only half make up their minds to improve. They would like to do it, but they are not really in earnest about it. Now, if you really mean to turn your leaf you must do it thoroughly and determinedly. Half measures are no use.

(2) Don't turn back a corner of the new leaf to peep at the old one. You are sure to spoil the new one as well as the old one if you do. This is a mistake a great many people make. When they fall into the old errors, instead of saying, “Well, never mind, I 'll do better the next time, ” they say, “There's that horrid old fault again! You see it really isn't any use my trying to conquer it.” And so they lose heart and give up.

Now never mind what you have done with the past. It is over and done with and you can't get it back. The main thing is to keep on trying, and then some day you will succeed.

Once there were three small boys who used to play at having “white” days. A “white” day was a day when they did nothing naughty, and seven “white” days made a “white” week. It was a splendid triumph when there was a whole “white” week.

One morning, the smallest boy did something naughty before breakfast and his brother exclaimed, “Oh, what a pity! You've spoiled the whole day.”

For a moment the boy's face clouded over, and then he brightened up; “Nah,” he said, “I haven't spoiled all the day.”

If you have made a mistake at the beginning of the day, don't let it spoil the whole the day. If you have made an error at the top of your new leaf, don't let it spoil all the leaf. Make the rest of it all the better in consequence. Don't turn back to the old leaf and say, “Well, there's the identical fault I made before. I'd better just give up trying.”

(3) Ask Jesus to help you to keep the leaf turned. You can never be quite sure of success if you don't. He can help us to turn our leaves. He can help us to keep them turned, and He can make each new leaf better than the old one.