Happy New Year!  Yay 2025! 

It has got to be better than 2024. 

Right?

Right?

Wait!

Isn’t that what we said about 2024?

And … isn’t that what we said about 2023?

Am I the only one who thinks that things are going downhill and have been going downhill for a while now?  Aren’t New Years supposed to be opportunities for new beginnings? 

Don’t get me wrong, I think we have the opportunity to make things better.  I think we can always make things better.  Making things better starts with change.  And the only things we can change is ourselves.  But, if enough of us change ourselves, than real change can occur around us. 

What do you suppose I’m going to say is the number one thing we can do to change ourselves? 

If we could make and keep one New Year’s Resolution, what would I say that would be?

Read this every day!  In fact, this is my yearly plan this year.  I’m going to try a chronological Bible this year.  Me and another guy from my office came up with the idea at the same time.  So yeah, that would be my number one New Year’s Resolution for EVERYONE this year.  Spend at least 15 minutes in God’s Word every day.  Anyone who wants hints for that or even a special yearly reading plan for new Bible readers (a plan to finish the Bible in a year) let me know, because I just found one for one of my students.  Reading one of these Chronological Order Bibles is NOT recommended for someone who is not already very familiar with the Bible.

And just as an aside, if I had to pick a second resolution, it would be to follow as closely as possible the greatest two commandments as found in Matthew 22:36-40:  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Between those two resolutions, what a wonderful world we would live in …

What percentage of the population would you think we would need to get involved in that before we would see real change in the world … or even in the little area that you live in?  What if you concentrated on your own little town?  Or neighborhood?  I don’t know the answer.  I did a little research and learned that a peaceful revolution is twice as effective as an armed revolution, but that’s all I was able to find out in a quick search.  

So, what do you think?  20% of the population?  Martin Luther King did so much with about that many people with the Civil Rights movement.  Imagine 20% of the population doing everything they could to follow the two great commandments…loving God and their neighbors?

Okay, let’s move on to the fun stuff.  I know, this IS fun stuff, but … you know …

So, there’s an example of a group of people doing the right thing…or how about this next one?  This is a bus stop.  The artist(s) got together and decided that their idea looked better:

Turns out, I’m not allowed to send cookies to school anymore.

Dear Darling Son & That Person You Married,

Merry Christmas to you, and please don’t worry. I’m just fine considering I can’t breathe or eat. The important thing is that you have a nice holiday, thousands of miles away from your ailing mother. I’ve sent along my last ten dollars in this card, which I hope you’ll spend on my grand- children. God knows their mother never buys them anything nice. They look so thin in their pictures, poor babies. 

Thank you so much for the Christmas flowers, dear boy. I put them in the freezer so they’ll stay fresh for my grave. 

Which reminds me — we buried Grandma last week. I know she died years ago, but I got to yearning for a good funeral so Aunt Viola and I dug her up and had the services all over again. 

I would have invited you, but I know that woman you live with would have never let you come. I bet she’s never even watched that videotape of my hemorrhoid surgery, has she? 

Well son, it’s time for me to crawl off to bed now. I lost my cane beating off muggers last week, but don’t you worry about me. 

I’m also getting used to the cold since they turned my heat off and am grateful because the frost on my bed numbs the constant pain. 

Now don’t you even think about sending any more money, because I know you need it for those expensive family vacations you take every year. 

Give my love to my darling grandbabies and my regards to whatever-her-name-is — the one with the black roots who stole you screaming from my bosom. 

I feel so sorry for people who don’t have dogs.  I hear they have to pick up their own food if they drop it on the floor.

I wish I could Google Search for things in my house.

How do you make the number one disappear?  You just add a “G” and it’s “gone”.

Being funny at work is a delicate balance of being just funny enough to entertain your coworkers but not so funny that you get sent to HR.

If you think swimming with dolphins is expensive?  You should try swimming with sharks…

Cost me an arm and a leg!

Another wooden ball?!?! 

Would it kill the makers of avocados to put a different toy inside?

I found a book about an amazing basement. 

It was a best cellar!

My book on the history of clocks finally arrived. 

It’s about time.

I went to the bakery and asked for some short bread. 

They told me they didn’t make it any longer.

Waiter:  Would you like regular or decaf?

Me:  Do you want me to tip you with real money or Monopoly money?

No, I really don’t “Rise and Shine.” 

The most I do is just caffeinate and hope for the best.

I’ve never understood why I didn’t consider cottage cheese to really be “cheese.”  But it’s just a curd to me.

I finally know why they call me a grown up.  I grown every time I get up.

When I was little, I didn’t care what I wore.  I just went along with what my parents chose. 

When I look in old photo albums, I realize that they didn’t care either.

And that’s it.  I hope everyone has a GREAT New Year.  Please be careful, have a great day.  May God Bless you and yours this year with health, happiness, strength, and comfort.  My love to you all.