Pray4America (part 11) - New Year Reset

NASA/GEMINI VII - EARTH-SKY VIEW 

To the good old days! 
That is a good modern paraphrase of Auld Lang Syne.   [reference:  History and Meaning of the Song, Auld Lang Syne - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com]
The lyrics and the tune have an interesting history.   Auld Lang Syne  is from Scottish poem written in 1788 by Robert Burns and later the words were set to the music of a folk song.   [reference:  The History and Words of Auld Lang Syne — The Official Gateway to Scotland]

Universally sung as New Year’s Eve turns into the New Year at the stroke of midnight,  no doubt, it will be sung, again, around the world as 2013 rolls over to 2014.

A beautiful rendition of this song is performed in this link below:

(reference: http://youtu.be/zrucR4cQgIw)

The New Year can bring a sense of optimism, a sense of starting over.  Resetting the calendar can mean a reset of our lives.  As to the good old days, it is a time to put the past behind us and press ahead into the future - the New Year.

In the New Testament, St. Paul exhorts us, too, to put the past behind us and press ahead and look up as expressed in this advice:

Brothers and sisters, 
I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

This past year has had many troubling events, its share of tragedies.  But 2013 has had its triumphs as well as good memories.  Though there still may be dark days ahead in 2014, we have the promise that the future will be glorious in a new world where the sorrow of the past will be forgotten:
  

See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,  
nor will they come to mind.

Isaiah 65:17 (NIV)

Meanwhile, as we press ahead and make resolutions for 2014, may one of our New Year's resolution be to lift up one another and -

Pray for America

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Previous posts in this series:

Pray4America (part 1) - National Day of Prayer (2012)

Pray4America (part 2) - FDR's prayer on D-Day (2012)

Pray4America (part 3) - FDR's Flag Day prayer - June 14, 1942 (2012)

Pray4America (part 4) - It's a Wonderful Life, America (2012)

Pray4America (part 5) - United we stand? (2012)

Pray4America (part 6) - Christmas in Iran 1980 (2012)

Pray4American (part 7) - For such a time as this (2013)

Pray4America (part 8) - Fear no evil (2013)

Pray4America (part 9) - America, the Beautiful - 1893 to 2013 (2013)

Pray4America (part 10) - Real Hope for America  (2013)

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Photo from:  NASA/GEMINI VII - EARTH-SKY VIEW