Change can be scary! New beginnings can too! As we leave 2020 behind, with all of it’s fear, confusion, unrest, and anxiety, let’s focus on making 2021 a joyful and productive one. This post full of quotes about new beginnings and change is a great place to start!
What is the Meaning of New Beginnings?
New beginnings look different to each of us at different stages of life. I grew up as a military kid. My family moved every couple of years and that meant packing up the old life and beginning a new one.
New town, new school, new friends.
It was scary, but I learned a lot about myself and I feel as if it gave me a resilience I might not otherwise have.
Often times a new beginning is simpler. A new job or hobby. The addition of a new member to the family. A changing from one season of life to another or to be cliche “turning to the next chapter”.
New beginnings can be emotional as well. Leaving a relationship whether it be divorce or letting go of a dying friendship. We fear we are leaving something behind and that fear prevents us from fully embracing the joy that can be found in the future.
Before we launch into quotes about new beginnings and change, let’s explore what the Bible says about change and take quotes from the best book of all.
What does the Bible Say about New Beginnings?
Are there new beginnings in the Bible? You bet and we are supposed to embrace them!
- Jacob ran from his angry brother Esau, bringing him to relatives and a new life.
- Naomi suffers pain and heartache when she loses both of her sons and her husband. She returns to Israel an old and broken woman and yet God’s plan is being played out.
- Adam and Eve lose their beautiful garden and constant connection to God. Can you imagine that new beginning? Not a happy one.
- Jesus, put to death for our sins, raises from the grave bringing the hope of a new beginning to all of us!
- Noah witnesses the entire earth destroyed by a flood and he and his family step out of the ark into a new beginning.
- Esther is dragged from her home and thrown into the king’s palace as if a toy with no life of her own. God’s plan is revealed as He uses her to save His people.
Bible Verses about New Beginnings
Let’s begin our quotes about change with Bible verses about new beginnings. The Bible is full of encouragement for us in this season of life. God knows nothing stays the same and we are often left to navigate new situations that make us fearful.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)
“Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18-19)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Though your beginning was small,
Yet your latter end would increase abundantly. (Job 8:7)
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelations 21:1-5)
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19)
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (Ezekiel 7:14)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)
For more encouraging verses check out “16 Powerful Bible Verses about Overcoming Struggles” from One Exceptional Life.
What is a Good Quote about Change?
I love words and a good quote can be very impactful, don’t you think. If you are looking for a quote to hang up on your wall or tuck into your journal, these quotes are for you.
Change is inevitable, growth is optional. -John C. Maxwell
Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. -John Wooden
“Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around.” -Roy T. Bennett
“If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” -Maya Angelou
“A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not why ships are built” -John A. Shedd
“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” -George Eliot
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” -Henry Ford
“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.” -Alan Cohen
“You must master a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.” -Marianne Williamson
“No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Sometimes we find we love things we never thought we wanted. And then we regret that we never wanted them at all. It’s the fear of change, I think, and dread of the unknown.” -Courtney M. Privett
“To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.” Winston Churchill
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” -William Arthur Ward
“Comfort and the fear of change are the greatest enemies of success.” Jeanette Coron
“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” Anais Nin
“On the precipice of any great change, we can see with terrifying clarity the familiar firm footing we stand to lose, but we fill the abyss of the unfamiliar before us with dread at the potential loss rather than jubilation over the potential gain of gladnesses and gratifications we fail to envision because we haven’t yet experienced them.” -Maria Popova
“We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.” -Max D Pree
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” -Alan Wilson Watts
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” -John F Kennedy
Why Quotes about New Beginnings and Change?
I have one more story to share with you which is why I am attracted to quotes about new beginnings and change.
I lost my beautiful 8 year old daughter in an accident 3 years ago. She is my only girl out of 5 kids, my right hand man. We did everything together.
When I lost her, I thought I had died. There was nothing more to live for. Life became meaningless, painful, empty. I went through the motions of living, but I was dead inside.
I distinctly remember the day that I “woke up” and realized I hadn’t actually died. There was life after deep grief. I did have something to live for.
We all experience seasons of life in which we question why we are even struggling to keep going. Divorce, sickness, a loss of a job, etc. all scare us and leave us feeling insecure and uncertain.
We have two choices. Lay down and surrender or keep pushing through. I challenge you to do the second!
I’d love to share more about my Rebekah with you. Read “Rebekah’s Heart” to get to know her better 🙂
Which of these quotes about new beginnings and change spoke to you? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
Check out these other quote posts!
20 Light Overcomes Darkness Quotes to Enlighten Your Day