I want to be clean, ready for whatever God has for me this year, and always. If I have “spots”, I can’t be 100% ready…they would be holding me back and getting in the way of my becoming the person I should be.
In a sense, we are new every day. Yesterday’s mistakes, thoughtless or careless deeds, as well as loving and kind acts, are done and over with. It’s a new day, but will forever be altered by yesterday’s choices, so it’s not really entirely new (a sobering thought.)
But I can be clean. The “spots” in my character can be washed away so that focusing on growth and what is truly important takes less effort. True repentance is always accepted by a forgiving God. This is such good news!
Similar to my heart, most photos can do with some spot cleaning. The barn photo needed some care. Below is the original, with sticks on the ground, lens spots in the sky, and other miscellaneous attention diverters. There is nothing really wrong with the original, but the cleaned up version focuses attention on the basic subject, the barn, without its being pulled away. Attention to my character cleaning gets pulled away by my character spots, too.
Original
Original
Clean
Here is a pretty red flower, spots and all on the left. Cleaned up, on the right, you can focus on the flower without being distracted by too many flaws. (Click on the photos to see the difference more clearly.)