Remember those New Year’s resolutions you made 113 days ago? I know I don’t, and I'm not really sure that they made it into my mind on January 2nd if I am being honest with you! With us about to close out April and enter into days of sunshine and with no school, let's revisit those resolutions and see what we can accomplish as we come into a new season! What if we take a more modest approach this time, setting the "resolutions" bar at a reasonable height? It just might make a difference. With the right attitude going in, the following five "just for today" resolutions can help us get back on track as we desire to make 2024 the best year yet. These are resolutions that most everyone has a good shot of accomplishing - something that you and your family can live with. As you succeed, you might even end up incorporating some of them into your life and identity.

Several years ago I heard Lonnie Jones ask a question that has a tendency to elicit several different responses: “What is the most important part of a car?” The answers, as you might imagine, range from the key to the engine to the driver to the headlights. All of those parts are significant. But the answer he usually gave was: “The part that you need to be working when it is not.”

Spring has sprung here in the south. With Spring, comes the March/April rains and of course the bugs. I have not done much research but I’ve heard rumors that hordes of cicadas are coming as well. Right now the newly hatched insects are an annoyance, maybe an inconvenience but some can be a problem, especially the blood sucking types. Regardless of size, we do not want them anywhere near our food or our mouths (The average of humans eating 8 spiders a year in their sleep is a myth by the way).

Years ago I heard the phrase, “it’s Friday but Sunday is coming.” You may be reading this article on a Friday or on Sunday morning. If this had been 2000 years ago during the Passover of Jesus’ death there would have been very different atmospheres between those two days.

I have heard the phrase “The Lord works in mysterious ways” practically all of my life. I find it interesting that I’ve heard that so much and yet I’m still surprised by the God of the Bible. I’ve come to realize that may be the point. There are two stories in the Bible that have helped me in this realization. Both involve people we might not have chosen if given our choice. Both have similar outcomes.

Life is complicated. It is full of struggles every single day. Some struggles are obviously more significant or carry a little heavier weight than others. At the same time, it is hard to know just how heavy another person’s burdens may be in the moment so we should always avoid comparing our burdens to anyone else’s. At the end of the day, burdens are burdens.

This past week was Read Across America Week. I’m almost certain that most parents of elementary students were fully aware of that fact. There were dress up days, crazy sock days, and other creative ideas to encourage students to think about the benefits and fun of reading. It always falls on the first week in March because of the March 2nd birthday of famed author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known simply as Dr. Seuss.

What causes a plant to grow? That answer, I understand, is certainly multifaceted. Most need sunlight and water. They need to be planted in the right soil and they need to be protected from the elements in some way. However, it is still amazing to think that most large trees come from a tiny seed and there may be secrets of how exactly that happens firmly grasped in the hands of God.

It is one of those phenomenons that is hard to fully explain. You hear coaches and players and commentators speak of the magic of momentum when it comes to the flow of the game. It often takes off suddenly, but can just as abruptly come to a halt. A basketball team may suddenly start hitting every shot and get several takeaways in a row. A football team may completely see a shift of momentum when a linebacker intercepts a pass and takes it in for a touchdown. You also may have the opposite experience if you are the team on the other side of those big plays. Your momentum may come to a screeching halt.

As I flip through the song book and think about the hymns I grew up on, as well as songs that I’ve learned since then, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of songs about storms. There is Shelter in the Storm written by Vernon Charlesworth in the 1880s that declares “Jesus is a rock in a weary land...a shelter in the time of storm.” Even songs that kids sing at VBS, chapel, and children’s Bible hours have words like “with Christ as my vessel I can smile at the storm” and “the rains came down as the floods came up.”