The Dawn of a New Year.....

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.
Benjamin Franklin

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Hal Borland

For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto man His Son hath given; While angels sing with tender mirth, A glad new year to all the earth. Martin Luther

Perhaps, it's the freshness of a New Year dawning, or the clean slate of a new day. Either way, I am always filled with hopes, plans, and provisions as I awaken to New Years Day. I imagine the things that I will finally get "right" this year. Shedding the "old" me, and clothing myself with a "new and improved" me.

These are the things that I want to improve on or do in the year ahead of me....

-being on time

-trying new and different recipes for my family

-reading an American classic

-being a better friend

-calling my friends more often instead of texting or emailing

-sending birthday cards instead of voice mail wishes

-to sincerely speak to the cashier or clerk who rings up my groceries each week

- to learn a foreign language...perhaps french or italian

-to not take things so personal....it's not all about me

-to pray much more often

-sticking to my word, even when it's inconvenient

-spending more time with my Dad

-focusing less on my house work and more on my husband and children

-letting the little things go

-being a whole lot more thankful for my blessings, instead of worrying about tomorrow

-joining a church..we have been visiting a few, but haven't joined a new church since we moved out here

-to learn that "less" really is "more"

-to do things for others fully out of love and with a servant's heart, and not for something in return.

-to be a better listener

I can't wait to look back at these a year from now and see if I was able to improve in any of these areas. One thing is for sure..there is always tomorrow, and that's what gives me hope.

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

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starting today,

me