From Laura Acuna: My shame story began when I was eleven. I entered seventh grade at five feet tall and weighed one hundred pounds, but by the time I left junior high, my weight doubled. Yes, you read that correctly. In the brief span of only a few years, I gained over one hundred pounds.

I have heard it said that there is only one thing that never changes in life …. and that is the undeniable certainty that something is about to change! There is a personal problem that is found in that certainty … I am a girl who doesn’t like change!

Gray skies … Dark days … Frigid temperatures … Barren trees. Large numbers on the bathroom scale … low numbers in my checking account … an empty house … a lonely heart. Such is the culture of January. If I am not careful, I can be swallowed alive by the cold and gloom … by the emptiness … of January.

As we bid adieu to 2022, social media is about to be flooded with New Year’s resolutions, color-coded planners, and every type of 2023 calendar imaginable. You can organize your life hourly, daily, weekly, monthly…even minute by minute, if you really want to.