"Do you know what today is?"

My dad would say in a cheery voice.

As I shuffled into the kitchen, my first thought was, How can anyone be cheery so early in the morning? Then I would try to think if this was some special day I had forgotten. I would grunt, then say, “Tuesday?” Hoping it was indeed Tuesday.

And in his cheery voice he would say, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

I would groan not believing I fell for that one again! I heard this saying from my dad more times than I cared to count growing and never appreciated it.

When I was older, married, and with children of my own, I realized my dad was saying that today is a fresh start, make the most of it. Don’t worry about yesterday and the past. Today is a new beginning.

The song Morning Has Broken from the 70’s came to mind as I was thinking about new beginnings and this being the first day of the rest of our life.

God made that first morning and He gives us each new morning.

“What is today?”

“The first day of the rest of your life.”