New Year, Fresh Beginings, and Resolutions by Diana Flegal

January first is just a day on the calendar, but it offers us a chance to examine where we are and project our goals to where we want to be, spiritually, mentally, and career wise.

I like fresh starts, a change to begin anew and to make a new list of goals. My personality lends its way to lists. I get such a sense of accomplishment when I cross a task off; it gives me the incentive to tackle the next one. One of my clients, David Stearman, recently said in an FB post, "For my first job of the day, I try doing something I know will be successful; a sure thing. An early victory sets a nice tone for the coming day."

I do that with my lists. I write it according to difficulty, with the easiest one listed first.

A favorite movie of mine is, "What About Bob." I think many Christian counselors could use that movie as a tool in their sessions. The takeaway for me was: Get things done by taking baby steps.

Books are the source of much direction I receive from God. I read his word, yes. But maybe I have to have someone predigest it for me. When I read Max Lucado's, Cure for the Common Life I took notes, and took something away from it that I could apply to my life. I am better for it.

When I read Erwin McManus's Seizing Your Divine Moment, I was so excited to give myself permission to think outside the box. Love that about Erwin.

So when I enter a new year I gather books about me that I feel are going to make me a better person. Better at my job, better in my relationships, and mostly, a better daughter of God.

This January I am reading, Your 100 Day Prayer, Actively Waiting on God by John Snyder alongside of Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. I just finished the novel The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook. And for my continual quest to learn more about the writing process, I am just about done reading Cec Murphey's, Unleashing the Writer Within.

In my stack are two books with bookmarks in them that I will complete as I finish these others. Life Lessons by Elisabeth Kubler Ross & David Kessler (authors of Death & Dying) and When you Don't See His Plan by Nadine Hennesey with Rebecca Baker. Other stacks wait patiently for me beside my nightstand and on my bookcase.

I am curious what titles you are reading as you enter this new year. What books have bookmarks in them on your night stand? I pray your list of goals are realistic and that you have great success in fulfilling them.

Bittersweet by Linda S. Glaz

Well, I’ve just read, for at least the hundredth time, the Christmas stories from the Little House series. My heart melts each year as I read about the sacrifice of family from this delightful Ingalls clan. They had so little, but were all about their family.

Another tearjerker was a very old episode of Fury. Ask any baby boomer if you don’t know what this fifties series is about. In this particular one, Joey befriends two little boys who are very poor, and at Christmas, they exchange the same gifts they had the last few years, crayons and I think, a pocketknife. But each year, they exchange them again. It’s a great lesson for children about being grateful in all circumstances for what you have.

Most of my favorite book/shows are from the forties through the sixties. Each had a lesson, and each one was based on a strong story, not a bunch of cheap holiday laughs with sex at the center of the joke. Okay, okay, I’m really old-fashioned(as well as really old), and Christmas brings this out in me, but it also brings out the longing for family to be together.

I have one kiddo who lives close to home, but the other two are thousands of miles away. So Christmas, while my favorite time of year, holds bittersweet nostalgia as well as looking to the holidays’ joys and to the future.

As the days of eggnog and Christmas stockings approach, I read my favorites, watch my old standbys and on occasion, am known to shed a tear or twenty.

Take this opportunity to read or share some of your most cherished memories with those you love. What is your favorite book/show from your childhood?