As a dad with a busy family, my wife and I face the dreaded question every day: “What’s for dinner?” We would love to make exciting, well-balanced meals for our family every night, but planning and preparing that takes time, energy, and money. And if we are being honest, it would probably just be met with looks of contempt and calls for chicken nuggets or pizza. So, we tend to fall back on a rotation of the same 10 quick, easy meals that the kids will actually eat. These meals provide the sustenance to keep our appetites in check, but they certainly are not anticipated events. It is more like a part of the gauntlet we run each night, trying to make it to bedtime. 

This daily task of preparing meals can quickly become tedious. But it also builds anticipation for the times when we can go to a restaurant and order a well-prepared meal that satisfies our taste buds as much as our stomachs. Unfortunately, even the best culinary experience will not satisfy for long. After a night of fine dining, we will still find ourselves the next day staring down the question “What’s for dinner?”

Food can be incredibly enjoyable and necessary for life, but there is something we need more, which is more enjoyable and lasts longer: The Word of God! Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” We spend so much time thinking about what we put into our bodies or anticipating a good meal.  But what truly satisfies is the Word of God. Too often, we let our Bibles sit on the shelf. Sure, there will be long days where reading the Bible feels like a tedious task, or we are busy and just let time pass us by. However, it is in the pages of the Bible that we find the true food for our souls, the spiritual food that we need just as much as the meals we put on the table.

As we embark on this new year of 2026, I want to ask you: Are you feeding your flesh, but neglecting your soul? As we begin a new year, I encourage you to commit this year to the food that lasts forever and satisfies your deepest longing: The Word of God, The Bible.

David Rathbun, Senior Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church