I love resolutions and challenges. Some people hate the idea of making changes and trying new things just because it’s a new year, but honestly, what’s wrong with starting something on January 1st if it helps you get excited for it? I think it’s smart to capitalize on the excitement and use it as momentum.

One of the most difficult parts of starting to form any new habit or complete any new challenge is when we have reverted back to our old selves. Whether it’s a new diet we’ve started and we just caved in to have pizza and soda, or we skipped the gym in the morning when we said we’d be there three times a week, or we have forgotten or neglected to read our Bibles when we said we wanted to read them every day and finish reading them through in a year — we all fall short of our own expectations at some point. But that’s completely normal, and happens to just about everyone who sets out to try something new. We are imperfect people.

Since starting the Read the Bible challenge, I have had great spurts and bad ones. I was 5 days behind at one point, which makes you feel like you might as well quit now. But that’s just crazy talk! We are all on this journey together and are figuring out how best to make it work for us. So I encourage you to keep pushing on, and recognize that even when you fall behind you are still in good company. I am more focused on how crazy some of the stories are that I haven’t heard in years than I am on how many days behind I am. I usually don’t spend much of my time in Leviticus, so I’m looking forward to the next few days (sort of). But keep pushing through, and know that you are not alone in this journey. We all see the crazy stories and scratch our heads. We all get behind. And we all catch up! You’ve got this!

Mike Creamer, Director of  Youth Ministries