The World and Everything in It: December 31, 2024

PREROLL:NICK EICHER, HOST: Happy New Year’s Eve, and thanks to all who’ve been a part of our Year End Giving Drive.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Depending of course upon when you’re listening, there’s just a few hours left to beat the tax man and get your gift in before 2025.

EICHER: So please visit WNG.org/YearEndGift. And thanks!

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

On this final day of 2024, we continue our coverage of the biggest news of the year. Today, the life beat.

ANDERSON: What does it mean to be a human being frozen in ice in a laboratory? It’s a very strange condition that we’ve brought these embryos into.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also, 40 years ago this month a pop-song raises millions for food and medical aid in Africa.

And remembering the lives of innovators in business and science.

KROEMER: I did make more money out of this patent than anybody else. I got 100 dollars for having submitted it.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, December 31st. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Mark Mellinger with today’s news.

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Trump endorses Johnson for speaker » President Trump has given Mike Johnson his endorsement to continue serving as Speaker of the House, but Johnson still hasn’t secured the support he needs from his fellow Republican lawmakers.

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie says he won’t vote for Johnson despite Trump’s endorsement Monday.

That means Johnson can’t afford to lose any more Republican votes when the new Congress convenes to choose a Speaker Friday. But a few GOP lawmakers, like Tennessee’s Tim Burchett, are still non-committal.

BURCHETT: I’ll make up my mind Friday or so when we do the votes. I’ll pray about it.

Some GOP critics are upset with Johnson for working with Democrats to pass a spending deal this month. Johnson allies like New York Congresswoman Claudia Tenney are pushing back.

TENNEY: What some of these people that are frustrating to see -my own colleagues- say is that, “Well, why does he work with Democrats?” We have to work with Democrats.

Burchett and Tenney talking to Fox News and Fox Business, respectively. If there’s a delay in choosing the House speaker, that could delay the official certification of the 2024 election results and swearing-in of new House members.

China hacks Treasury Department » The U.S. Treasury Department says it’s been hacked by China. Details from WORLD's Travis Kircher.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Hackers acting on behalf of the Chinese government breached the U.S. Treasury's online guardrails earlier this month and stole documents.

That according to a report by Reuters news service, citing a letter the U.S. Treasury sent to lawmakers. Reuters obtained that letter yesterday.

In it, the Treasury characterized the hack as a, quote, major incident...but said none of the documents were classified.

The hackers allegedly bypassed a third-party security provider by stealing a key, or password, providing access to the Treasury's computer system.

The Treasury Department says the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency...as well as the FBI...are investigating.

For WORLD, I'm Travis Kircher.

SOUND:  [Tearful reunions]

Ukraine POWs freed in prisoner swap with Russia » The sounds of tearful reunions as Ukrainian prisoners of war reunite with their families.

It came after Russia and Ukraine took part in a prisoner swap of nearly 200 POWs each. That’s according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Among the Ukrainian POWs: soldiers captured by Russian forces from the front lines in places like Snake Island. The POWs also included two civilians.

SOLDIER: [Speaking Russian]

This soldier, in Russian, says he's euphoric. He says he doesn't fully understand that he's really free, although both he and his family have waited for this moment. He goes on to call this the second birthday of his life.

Zelenskyy credited the United Arab Emirates for negotiating the exchange.

Biden sending another $2.5 million to Ukraine » President Biden says the U.S. is sending another $2.5 billion dollars in weapons to Ukraine, working to meet the White House’s goal of spending all available money for Ukraine before Donald Trump takes office.

SINGH: We are committed to using that full authority that Congress has allotted to us.

That was Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh weeks after Trump’s election win.

The aid package announced Monday lets the military pull existing stock from shelves to get weapons to the battlefield faster, and also pays for longer-term weapons deliveries.

Also Monday, the Treasury Department announced it’s sending another $3.4 billion dollars to Ukraine to cover the salaries of first responders, school employees, healthcare, and other government workers as that country combats Russia’s invasion.

Southern tornado cleanup » Monday was cleanup day for a lot of people after powerful storms roared through the Southern U.S. over the weekend.

The National Weather Service says it’s confirmed at least 30 tornadoes touched down as it works through about 50 reports of tornado damage spanning from Texas to South Carolina.

In Alvin, Texas, Donald Duncan tells KTRK a tornado ripped the roof off his home as he was about to celebrate a late Christmas with family.

DUNCAN: One of the boys said, “My ears are ringin’.” The next thing you know, the glass just busted out. When the glass busted out, the tornado came through (whoosh noise). And that’s when it ripped off the roof.

Neither he nor his 10 family members inside were hurt.

The storms knocked out power to tens of thousands of people across several states, and also resulted in a handful of deaths.

Trump, GOP will push for federal voting changes » Republicans want to overhaul the U.S.’s voting procedures, and they’re planning to act quickly on that in the new Congress.

They want all voters to show a photo ID and prove citizenship every time they cast a ballot. Wisconsin Republican Congressman Bryan Steil says it’s a reasonable way to restore public confidence in elections.

STEIL: Photo ID is essential. You need it to board an airplane, to buy a six-pack of beer or open a bank account. I think it’s appropriate that you need photo identification to be able to vote.

Some Democrats say the GOP proposals go too far, and could make it harder for people to vote. Michigan Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson would prefer to see more federal funding for election offices.

BENSON: My job is also to make sure everyone has access to identification and gets their license or gets their state ID. And so what we really need are more resources from the federal government that helps us get people IDs before they implement or add more onerous identification requirements.

The proposed changes have the strong support of President-elect Trump.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: reviewing the top pro-life news stories of 2024. Plus, the story behind a popular Christmas song.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 31st of December.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Up first, a year-end recap from the life beat.

This year, WORLD followed dozens of stories related to the sanctity of life. Everything from the ten ballot measures on abortion to a controversial court ruling on in-vitro fertilization.

Joining us now to review some of these top stories and to talk about the year ahead is WORLD’s life beat reporter Leah Savas.

REICHARD: Leah, good morning.

LEAH SAVAS: Good morning. Thanks for having me on.

REICHARD: Well, let's just start with a recap of this year. What would you say is the top development on the lifebeat?

SAVAS: Yeah, so normally, I'm really focused on the abortion issue, but this year, in vitro fertilization came into the headlines and that was because of a state supreme court ruling out of Alabama. A ruling that parents who lose their embryonic children to an accident or other unfortunate event that happened during the IVF process, that they could sue under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. Now, that didn't mean that, you know, IVF providers could face homicide charges or something, but I think a lot of people thought that's what it meant. So, there was this big national backlash, people coming out in support of IVF, specifically Republicans saying, you know, “I'm all about this. We need to support IVF.” But even though it was misunderstood, it did raise a lot of important questions. So, here's a theologian I interviewed about the case. His name's Matthew Lee Anderson.

MATTHEW LEE ANDERSON: What does it mean to be a human being frozen in ice in a laboratory, right? It's a very strange condition that we've brought these embryos into, I think the burdens of judgment that it places on reproductive doctors is just way too high.

REICHARD: Well, let's segue now into abortion stories. What's top of mind there?

SAVAS: Yeah, so there were two abortion related Supreme Court cases this year, and they were the first cases to come to the Supreme Court on the abortion issue since the Dobbs decision. So, that was pretty big. One of them had to do with abortion pills. The justices were hearing oral arguments in this case that pro-life doctors brought against the Food and Drug Administration, basically critiquing their lax safety requirements on distributing the abortion drug.

That case did not go the way pro-life doctors were hoping. Eventually the justices ruled that those doctors did not have standing. And then the other case was out of Idaho. The federal government had sued Idaho over its protections for unborn babies, basically saying, you know, your lack of a health exception in your pro life law is against federal law. So, they're trying to pressure the state to require doctors to be able to perform abortions, not only to save the woman's life, but also to save her health. And that also did not go favorably for pro-lifers. The justices said that they shouldn't have taken the case up at all.

REICHARD: Yeah, there was so much news on your beat this year. I saw stories on women who had these terrible complications related to laws ostensibly related to laws passed in pro-life states. What can you tell us about those?

SAVAS: Yeah, so, there was a lot of coverage specifically from ProPublica. They were publishing all these articles basically saying, you know, here's a case of a woman who died because of the state's pro-life law. Well, you know, they were trying to blame it on the laws. Why, for instance, a doctor wasn't intervening to remove a dead baby from a mom who was like, infected? You know, stuff like this. But doctors I interviewed—pro-life doctors—in other states, and including in states with similar laws in place, they were saying that this is probably just cases of poor medical judgment. So, here's one doctor I spoke with, Dr. Jonathan Scrafford:

DR. JONATHAN SCRAFFORD: Where are the examples of people who did give appropriate medical care and then were convicted, or their lives were ruined, they went bankrupt, they lost their job because of these things? There has to be some burden of proof at some point about these concerns…

REICHARD: And ProPublica dropped some of those stories really close to the election. Maybe they were hoping to influence voters at that point. Now, earlier we mentioned the 10 states that had abortion measures. Remind us what happened there.

SAVAS: Yeah, so, there were 10 states that voted on abortion related ballot measures. They were all slightly different, but each of them would essentially enshrine abortion into the state constitution. Seven of those passed, including in red states like Missouri, but in three other states, pro-lifers were able to defeat those pro-abortion ballot measures using varying tactics. For instance, in Nebraska, pro-lifers actually backed an alternative amendment that that succeeded, while the pro-abortion amendment failed. And a lot of people see this as kind of a path forward for the movement. A lot of people see this as kind of a path forward for the movement. So, here's a senator from Nebraska, Pete Ricketts:

PETE RICKETTS: I believe that the life begins at conception. What we put in certainly says, “Hey, abortion after the first prime minister is not allowed.” But it doesn't say it's a fundamental right to abortion, so it doesn't open the door to things like funding abortions. I think part of the challenge is we've got a lot of work to do, winning hearts and minds. Our 434 ballot initiative gives us that opportunity to be able to do that.

REICHARD: Alright, well, let's look ahead to the New Year. Leah, what stories will you be watching?

SAVAS: Yeah, there's gonna be a lot going on, for sure, but definitely fall out from these pro-abortion constitutional amendments, what actually happens in the courts and in state legislatures related to that. Looking at the US Supreme Court also recently, we found out that they're taking up another abortion related case, this time having to do with whether pro-life states can remove abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding. So we'll be watching all those things and a lot of other things too.

REICHARD: Yeah, plenty of work to do. And Leah, you welcomed new life into your family this year, didn't you?

SAVAS: Yes, we had our first baby this summer. He came the same week as the anniversary of the Dobbs decision. So I was actually finishing up a Dobbs anniversary piece while I was in labor with him, because I was bored. I promise no one was forcing me to do that…

REICHARD: That is dedication, and we appreciate it. Congratulations for your new son. You have a lot going on there. Thanks for joining us today Leah.

SAVAS: Yeah, thanks for having me, Mary.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next: Fame and fundraising.

Forty years ago this month, British citizens by the millions were buying a song by a charity supergroup known as Band Aid. The effort would go on to inspire musical relief efforts around the world.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The record was in response to shocking footage out of Ethiopia, where a devastating famine was worsening. It’s estimated that it ultimately took up to a million lives.

WORLD’S Lindsay Mast has the story of the famine, the song, and relief for the victims.

LINDSAY MAST: In December 1984, one song rules the airwaves in Britain.

LYRIC: ...It’s Christmas time… there’s no need to be afraid…At Christmastime, we let in light and we banish shade…

It blends together dark lyrics… synthesizer bells…and the voices of some of the biggest pop stars of the time.

LYRIC: There’s a world outside your window and it’s a world of dread and fear.

It spends 5 weeks at Number 1 on the British charts, and four decades on, it regularly returns to them—this year it hit number 8.

The song raises a lot of money for victims of a massive famine in Ethiopia—a famine that just two months prior, had been unknown to most of the world.

The song and the momentary attention of the world began with a single BBC report on October 23rd, 1984:

BUERK: Dawn and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plane outside Korem, it lights up a Biblical famine.

It is difficult to overstate the impact that BBC journalist Michael Buerk’s report would have around the world. It showed scores of emaciated people waiting in feeding camps…the bodies of dead mothers and children, wrapped together in cloth.

BUERK: 15,000 children here now, suffering, confused, lost… Death is all around. A child or an adult dies every 20 minutes. Koram, an insignificant town, has become a place of grief.

Buerk was named Television Journalist of the Year by the Royal Television Society for his story. An unsung hero in bringing that report to the world’s attention is a humble pilot who flew him into Koram.

KEITH KETCHUM: I landed in Addis Ababa on February 4, 1984 and walked through the glass doors of the airport, which had the hammer and sickle motif, and I wondered, What have I done?

Keith Ketchum had been a commercial airline mechanic but went to Ethiopia to work with Mission Aviation Fellowship and its partner World Vision. Ketchum flew grain, milk powder, and oil to remote places with no roads…sunup to sundown—sometimes 12 flights a day. It was high-stakes work.

KETCHUM: I was approved to sign off 747s, flying over the North Atlantic. I didn't feel that kind of pressure until I got to Ethiopia, and I realized, if I can't get this airplane running, people are going to die.

Buerk’s graphic report wakes the world up to the problem. The BBC reports it aired on 400 stations worldwide. But back in Ethiopia:

KETCHUM: We were completely oblivious, because there was a news blackout in Ethiopia. We had no idea of the impact this had.

One person who sees Buerk’s story is British rocker Bob Geldof.The report leaves him deeply troubled. Audio here from a 2004 BBC documentary.

GELDOF: I was startled by it… any notions of records or sales disappeared. It demanded a response.

He convinces fellow musician Midge Ure to write a Christmas single to raise money for aid efforts. They come up with a tune and lyrics. They talk a recording studio into donating a single 24-hour period for recording and mixing. Geldof calls up dozens of artists.

Sting, Bono, Phil Collins, members of Wham! and Duran Duran—nearly 40 artists in all help out.

LYRIC: Feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again…

The song sells a million copies in its first week and goes on to raise an estimated 8 million pounds for famine aid—that’s about 40 million in today’s U.S. dollars. It also inspires American musicians to record “We are the World” four months later…

LYRIC: We were the world, we are the children.

That summer Geldof also organizes two relief concerts, called “Live Aid.” Nearly 2 billion people around the world tune in.

LYRIC: “But say a prayer…”

But despite that success, some say the political forces that led to the famine were downplayed—and lead to continued problems in Ethiopia.

The initial BBC report points out drought, and years of failed rains. But it doesn’t mention the role of the Derg, Ethiopia’s communist government. Keith Ketchum once again:

KETCHUM: I had a saying, we're fighting the government to help the people, and I think the lack of cooperation, or just the hesitancy for them to see what what good we were doing and help us.

The Derg came to power in part because of how former Emperor Haile Selassie bungled a famine ten years earlier…but the Derg do no better. Eric Patterson is President of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

ERIC PATTERSON: It was using food as a weapon of war and cutting off food supplies from some of the areas that needed it most, but were from different ethnic groups in different parts of the country.

Patterson says they failed to put in place policies that would’ve made the country more resilient during natural disasters.

PATTERSON: Frankly, after 10 years of civil war, where that government had ruined its own economy, and fought against its own people, it was not in a very good position to stand up when it came and help its citizens during the time of drought and famine.

Before Buerk’s report and Band Aid’s song, Keith Ketchum says he had a dim view of journalists in Ethiopia—they took up space in the plane…space where grain could have gone. But forty years later,

KETCHUM: I love journalists now, yes, and those who influence and can rally people. I say that Bob Geldof taught a generation that it was cool to be compassionate. I also say every generation needs to learn that.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast.

LYRIC: ...Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time again…

NICK EICHER, HOST: It was less than two weeks before Christmas when a German Shepherd named Athena left her family home alone.

Owner Brooke Comer says she has no clue how Athena got out. She plastered missing dog posters, chased down tips, and came up empty.

Then, at 2:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve, the Ring doorbell triggered:

RING BELL: (Ring doorbell announcement) Hi! You are currently being recorded.

COMER: Sound of door opening, “oh my gosh!” (Woof).

It was Athena announcing her grand return.

A Christmas miracle.

What did Athena get for Christmas this year?

You guessed it. A microchip.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, December 31st.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: remembering notable inventors and innovators.

But first, we want to spend some time remembering one of our own who died this year, our founder, Joel Belz, on February 4th. Joel launched It’s God’s World in 1981, and then eventually WORLD Magazine. And he oversaw the growth of WORLD over the decades into the organization it is today.

REICHARD: Following Joel’s death, many of our own journalists paid tribute to him—some in print, some online, and Kim Henderson put together a beautiful remembrance for this podcast. We’ll provide a link to all those resources in the transcript for today’s program. Living treasure by Lynn Vincent
Learning from Joel by Kevin Martin
Joel Belz—1941–2024
His Father’s world by Kim Henderson
The story seeker by Leigh Jones
Marveling at what God built
Lynde Langdon, Kim Henderson, and Lauren Dunn

Outside of WORLD, many other leaders in business and science also died.

EICHER: Here’s WORLD reporter Mary Muncy.

MARY MUNCY: First up, Bill Post, the inventor of a middle schooler’s favorite breakfast.

COMMERCIAL: Kellogg's Pop Tarts…

Post was a baker in the 60s when he got a call from Kellogg. In an interview with Fox, he said the company wanted a pastry for the toaster.

So they started work, but trying to get one test product through a 300-foot oven was not easy.

POST: So we had a lot of scrap and debris going through the oven. We sorted them out and let all the debris go to the pig farmer. The pig farmer was the happiest guy in the whole deal.

And maybe Post’s kids. They were 9 and 13 at the time and he brought home test products for them. At first, they were not good, but just a few months later the first Pop Tarts hit the shelves in Ohio and sold out almost immediately.

Post says he ate Pop Tarts a few times a week until his death on February 10th at age 96.

Next, two people who made modern technology possible: Herbert Kroemer and Robert Dennard.

HERBERT KROEMER: I’ve always liked to take ideas to the extreme, fully realizing that this extreme might not be reachable.

Herbert Kroemer won the Nobel Prize in 2000 for discovering the technology for modern semiconductors. They conduct electricity under some conditions and block it under others and are in everything from your cell phone to your car.

He told Vega Science that when he first tried to make one, it did not go well, so he shelved the idea until the 60s when technology started to catch up to his ideas. When it did, he filed a patent. But it expired in 1985 before there were any significant commercial uses.

KROEMER: I did make more money out of this patent than anybody else. I got 100 dollars for having submitted it.

Meanwhile, Robert Dennard was devising a way to store data in something smaller than the hulking computers of the 60s.

He told IBM Research that as a kid, he was good at math and science, but he was much more interested in climbing trees and dunking his cat in the pond.

Nevertheless, his high school guidance counselor said he should try engineering and by 1966 he was working with IBM trying to shrink data storage. He was sitting at home when it hit him.

DENNARD: I called up my boss and I said I’ve really developed great new memory technology for the future. He told me to take two aspirin and call him in the morning.

He eventually convinced his boss that storing data in fewer capacitors and transistors was possible. By the mid-70s what’s now known as DRAM was in almost every personal computer.

Dennard died on April 23 at age 91 and Herbert Kroemer died on March 8 at age 95.

AUDIO: [Sound of foxes]

Next, the woman who systematized domesticating foxes. Lyudmila Trut was 25 when she agreed to head an experiment in Russia that studied the process of domestication.

TRUT: [Speaking Russian] We formed a select group brought in from farms all over the USSR for crossbreeding. Then out of their offspring, we selected all the calmest cubs. And we have been doing this from generation to generation.

She says they brought in select silver foxes from all over what was the Soviet Union, then they bred the calmest pups.

When she started in 1958, Trut could have been jailed for doing that kind of genetic experimentation.

TRUT: [Speaking Russian] there have been 60 generations of them. Well, the selection turned what were once aggressive and sneaky foxes into animals as friendly as a dog.

She says after just a few generations they turned what were once aggressive, sneaky foxes into animals as friendly as a dog.

And they started to look and act a lot like dogs, too. Over the course of more than 60 generations, Trut and her team documented physical changes as each generation grew tamer. They had fewer stress hormones, floppy ears, and they started wagging their tails—among other things.

Trut died in October at 91 years old—after more than 60 years of living with her foxes.

Next, another, more infamous, scientist: Philip Zimbardo, the architect of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

ZIMBARDO: We wanted to ask the question: what happens if you take people—all of whom are good, normal, healthy college students, intelligent—and we put them in a bad place.

So, Zimbardo simulated a prison in the basement of Stanford University. He paid college boys to be prison guards and prisoners for two weeks. He told the Skavlan TV Show about the results.

ZIMBARDO: On the first day, nothing happened.

The prison guards felt awkward in their uniforms.

ZIMBARDO: But then, the next morning, the prisoners rebelled.

Suddenly, the students in the prison uniforms weren’t classmates, they were “dangerous prisoners.” And the guards started psychologically demeaning them.

Halfway through the experiment, Zimbardo invited colleagues to interview the subjects. The first one who came was a woman he was dating.

ZIMBARDO: She starts crying. I said, ‘what’s the matter with you?’ She said ‘it’s terrible what you’re doing to those boys. They’re not prisoners, they’re not guards, they’re boys. And you’re responsible,’ and she runs out.

He stopped the experiment shortly after that, about a week early.

Other scientists have questioned the ethics of the study, and its implications are still being studied.

Zimbardo died on October 14 at age 91.

Finally, a man who built a business to help other people build their homes.

COMMERCIAL: [(Music) Home Depot, Home Depot]

Bernie Marcus told Job Creators Network that he grew up in a fourth-floor tenement in New Jersey.

BERNIE MARCUS: We were poor. We had nothing. We had nothing.

On a walk around a different neighborhood, he decided that when he grew up he wanted to live in a house with a porch.

MARCUS: And I wasn’t envious. I just said ‘How’d they do it?’

So he went to school and worked various jobs until he was eventually put in charge of a home improvement chain where he met his future business partner. The two were fired from the chain at the same time in 1978 and started planning. A year later, they opened the doors of a rival.

AUDIO: [Home Depot commercial]

The company is now one of the world’s largest home improvement retailers—doing business in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Marcus died on November 4. He was 95 years old.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, December 31st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, starting the new year well. Almost a third of Americans say they’ll make resolutions or set goals for 2025. But WORLD Opinions contributor Steve Watters encourages a resolution that goes beyond those we often fail to keep.

STEVE WATTERS: A recent YouGov survey found 58% of Americans under 30 say they make resolutions, but less than a quarter of those older than 30 do.

Drive Research speculates that the over-30 crowd may have already met many of their life goals. Those who haven’t have likely grown cautious after failed resolutions in the past. One study reports less than 10 percent of those making resolutions keep them.

My own experience matches that data.

In our first year of marriage, my wife and I got away for a New Year’s Eve stay at a family cottage in Michigan. As we looked out over a frozen lake covered with snow, the fire popping in the big rock fireplace, we were inspired to dream up a new young adults ministry that we launched the following year.

The next Christmas, I gave her an engraved door knocker and announced optimistically, “Let’s accessorize this with a house.” On New Year’s Eve, we headed back to the cottage for fresh inspiration—and in the process decided to add the goal of starting a family. A year later, we skipped the cottage and had our planning time in our newly built home, with our two-week old son. This big goal thing was really paying off.

The next December we went back to the cottage and tried to dream up some bigger goals—like “start a new business” and “write a book.” We also added goals for exercise, reading, vacations, and major purchases. This time we climbed up onto the kitchen counter and hid the list on a ledge above the sink. We thought it would be fun to go back the next year and see how much we had accomplished.

But it wasn’t fun when we reviewed the list a year later. We had missed our big goals as well as many of the new smaller goals we had added.

We headed out from the cottage to a local restaurant to try to rally and do better on a plan for the next year. After we got our two-year-old son busy with crackers and crayons we turned over a paper placemat and started jotting down our goals, including preparing for another baby due in two months. As we struggled to keep our son occupied, we realized that one reason it was hard to achieve new goals was because previous ones—like growing our family—were making it difficult to add anything else.

We also realized that some of the objectives we had added may not have been worth pursuing. In the spirit of self-improvement, we had taken on a lot of to-do items that ultimately made our lives busier rather than better.

Back at the cottage, after our son went to sleep, we paused our goal setting and instead spent time praying—asking God to show us what he would have us prioritize and to help us do what was most important.

That was a turning point for us. We still believed it was important to plan for the new year as a couple and to be willing to sacrifice for shared priorities, but our focus shifted from setting big goals to making prayerful resolutions.

That night, we started a new list of priorities that has guided our planning each year since. We came up with things like: seek to know and do God’s will; do work that has eternal value; and steward our lives in ways that serve others and glorify God.

Praying about those priorities each year has prompted some big new goals at times—but more often it has helped us bring fresh resolve to the commitments we already have in our marriage, family, and church. That has also helped us protect important investments like family discipleship and teaching 5th grade Sunday School. Opportunities that might have otherwise gotten squeezed out by work, school, and extracurricular activities.

That year we were also prompted to start adding a guiding verse to our annual plan and to display it on our refrigerator throughout the year. Our verse for the year ahead comes from Paul’s prayer to the Thessalonians

…we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.

That’s a big goal we know God is prepared to help us all keep.

I’m Steve Watters.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: analysis of the biggest political news stories of the year, on Washington Wednesday.

That and more tomorrow.

We are saying goodbye for the last time in 2024, and as we do, I’d like to thank all who gave to our Year End Giving Drive and remind you if you haven’t yet there are just a few hours left: WNG.org/YearEndGift

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Book of Revelation says: “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.” Revelation 20:11-12.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.