Joseph F. Radosevich

 Lord-willing, I'll be praying through the world map in 2024. In past years, I've read through the Bible. This year, my goal is praying. I plan on praying through the world map using the plan in Operation World and Pray for the World . I'll lean on Pray for the World  more because it is the abridged edition. You can also use their app or website to find their list of places to pray for.  Larger countries and regions get a few days dedicated to praying for them. Smaller countries just get one day. The books have both reasons to thank God and things to ask God for. I won't be reading everything. I'll be looking for something that catches my eye and use that as the inspiration for my prayers. I love the books and thought it would go well with my regular devotions. I didn't want to change my current Bible reading plans, but this gives me a little change without being overwhelming.

  Here are my results from my 2023 goals. I actually like not completing everything. I like stretching and missing a few. If I missed a lot, that would be a problem. Here are my goals for 2023:  Health Workout 200 Times (This is 16x a month) COMPLETED 280 Do 5 pull-ups FINISHED 3 Power Wheel roll-outs (I've been working on roll-outs for 2 years. They are hard.) I'm not there yet, but I've made good progress. Learn Learn to make Chicken Biryani (Last year was Tikka Masala.) FINISHED Read 36 books (6 audiobooks) Finished 6 Personal Finish edits on my Family Dictionary of Theology (This is the 3rd round of edits.) FINISHED Draft 2 other book ideas DID NOT COMPLETE Write 26 times on blog FINISHED Have 20 fires in firepit with my family (This is so that I slow down and enjoy time at home without a to-do list.) COMPLETED 5 OF 20 (but we had a lot of quality time with things like visiting parks and playing board games) Visit 5 historic sites with my family in our area Visited 5

My first list of my favorite books of the year was mostly fiction. I also read theology, biblical studies, leadership, etc. I thought I would list some of those. What is interesting is that most of them are books I read for the second or third time. I decided to reread some books from seminary this year. I got so much from them. With a few years of pastoring and almost forty years of life behind me, I understand better why my professors assigned these books. Christ-Centered Preaching , Bryan Chapell. This is a great book on all of the different aspects of preaching. This is the third time I read it. I think I got far more from it than ever before.  Baptists in America , Thomas Kidd and Barry Hankins. This is readable history. Kidd and Hankins make each paragraph and chapter move quickly. The story is great. The subject is something I wanted to know. They make it a work of art by their amazing writing. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture , Graeme Goldsworthy. This is the de

Here are my favorite books that I read in 2023: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. I read this on vacation and absolutely loved it. It's the best book by Lowry that I've read. It is a story about a girl during World War II in Denmark. It is based on true stories about the Danish resistance against Nazi occupation. *I highly recommend reading juvenile and young adult fiction on vacation. Plant Science for Gardeners and Soil Science for Gardeners by Robert Pavlich. I read two of these books over the winter and loved them. He explains the ins and outs of how plants grow, what they do, what defense mechanisms are, etc. He also explains what soil is and how soil works. It helped me a lot in the garden. It also made me wonder and marvel at the world. Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. I read this in kind of a book club with two of my kids-they read the abridged young adult version. We really loved it The story was excellent. It was the story of the rowing team that formed at th

I discovered this year that I have an imaginary social media profile. I think that's healthier for me. I found though that using the Google photos app as social media is emotionally better for me. I can enjoy the pictures that I take without needing other people's approval. Google brings up memories from the past or ties them together in a theme. I often think of posts or captions for the pictures that I take. I've heard of other people creating fake social media profiles or fake blogs that nobody knows exists because it's kept private. Google photos has been that for me. I didn't post anything on social media for the first 6 months of the year. I was wrestling with the question, can I use social media without serving people's opinion of me? In truth, I don't think I can. I post something now once a month or two. When I do, I still find myself craving every like. Every time someone approves of it or leaves a comment it feels better for me than it ought to. I