2026 Goals/Resolutions--Number 4

I look forward to every New Year’s Day on January 1.  Sometime when I was in my early 20’s my mother-in-law bought me a Day-Timer leather calendar with the annual insert.  It was the A5 size and I used it almost religiously for years until the upgraded electronic gadgets and calendars took over.  I can remember using both Day-Timer and the Franklin Covey planners simultaneously trying to keep up with time management.  During those days, you had to order them with a catalog usually by late October and early November so you would be able to have it ready by January.  I can remember when they went from the basic calendar packages to themed settings—leadership, patriotic, travelers, and so forth.  The Franklin Covey inserts were really high end and would be sent to you in a metal tin box so you could save them after the year had ended.  I have several of them packed away from years ago. 

Another thing that I started doing was around the beginning of December, I would start mapping out a list of sorts to sort of move me in a direction to accomplish some goals.  I can remember reading Stephen Covey’s books about the seven habits of highly effective people and what he later wrote about—the eighth habit.  Other time management authors like David Allen, Peter Drucker, Brian Tracy, Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson, and Jim Collins were books that I found myself tracking through.  Somewhere along the way I picked up the idea that however you spend your time is how you spend your life.  I know that might not be so profound, but its simplicity makes it worth digging into. 

A Morning in Thomasville with Ben Weeks

Recently I have spent a bit of time revisiting the Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.  One of the things that Bunyan seems to stress during the story is the need for friendship and fellowship along the way to the Celestial City.  Two of the more constant companions that Christian kept with him were two men, Faithful and Hopeful.  The way is difficult but through the avenue of friendship, Christian and his companions find the way to be much easier.  For more than ten years, I have been friends with Ben Weeks, pastor of Truth Harbor in Lake Park, Georgia which is just outside of Valdosta, Georgia.  He is a Christian gentleman of the finest sort and he has a renowned preaching ministry that has been widely received in all sorts of national and international venues—conferences, camp meetings, marriage retreats, and pastoral anniversaries.  For the last decade we have met at various times in Thomasville, Georgia, which is about half-way between Dothan and Valdosta to eat at Sonny’s BBQ and other little hole in the wall restaurants there to talk about the Bible, matters of theology and doctrine, preaching, church life and sometimes just the mundane insignificant things that take place in life.