After reading a book, I always read the endnotes. The endnotes tell me where the author gleaned his or her wisdom, inspiration and knowledge. Listed are resources that he or she used for research and reflection. From this research, the author compiles a strategy and structure to put their own point across and to substantiate their point, as they write a script that will move a reader forward and give them a new experience and insight that is significantly influential.
This is how I feel at the close of a year. It is time for me to read the endnotes of my year. I review my experiences and learn from them. It’s like I’m doing my research so I can plan a strategy and glean inspiration for the next year.
You have control over your destiny. God has given you the awesome power of choice. Choose to love life in all circumstances. Write a new chapter each month as if your life next year will be a book.
Take time to pray and ask God for what you want your year to look like. The endnotes actually were the beginning. Let your evaluation of this year become your research for your year to come. Don’t repeat the same mistakes, but repeat what you do well and create something new. Delete the things that were not productive and fruitful.
In the second book that Peter wrote, in his first chapter, he reminds us that God’s divine power has been given to us for all things that pertain to life and godliness. He also tells us that we are to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. Then he tells why we are to assume this responsibility:
“For if these things are yours and abound [increasing], you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins” (2 Pet. 1:8-9).
This is my list for my new year. I am intentionally increasing in these things so I can maximize what is important and write a few new chapters in my life. How about you?
Devi Titus, wife of Larry Titus, is among America’s most recognized Christian conference speakers and authors. She is an award winning communicator with the Washington Press Women’s Association and speaks to multiple thousands annually, both nationally and globally.
Janet Perez Eckles 
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