Back on March 15th in a blog post entitled "March Madness", I laid out the following prediction for this year's NCAA Basketball tournament, specifically the Final Four:
Here are my picks: From the Midwest -- Florida; from the West -- UCLA; from the South -- Ohio State; and from the East -- Georgetown.
Not bad, huh? I think this is the first time in my bracket-pickin' life I have nailed all four teams in the Final Four.
Also on March 15th, I made the following prediction about the yet-to-be-decided Final Four:
Just like in the Arkansas AA State Championships, the NCAA Championship will be a rematch between Ohio State and Florida.
I'm going with the Gators to make it a clean sweep.
I'm not feeling as confident about that pick heading into the Final Four. UCLA, following a first-round upset in the Pac-10 Tournament, is looking awfully good heading into Atlanta.
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Today Mandy flies back from Florida into San Jose. Tori, Grammy and I are heading to the Bay Area after we take Trae to school to pick up Mandy and to do a little sightseeing. Hopefully the weather will cooperate (by the way, last night was the first time we've seen lightning in the sky since moving to California. The winds that accompanied last night's cold front reminded me a lot of spring weather in Arkansas).
Our plans are to tour the Bay Area: the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, the Financial District downtown, the requisite drive down the Embarcadero by AT&T Park, and the Bay Bridge. I'm excited about spending the day with my mom and sharing in her first-ever experience of the City by the Bay.
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Finally this morning, the last two weeks at Woodward Park have been wonderful as the Word of God has helped us all become more forgiving. In the last two weeks, we've sought to bury bitterness and renounce revenge as options when others wound us.
This coming Sunday, we'll look at Forgiveness through the Eyes of God and learn from Scripture what goes into God's forgiveness of us as a model for our forgiveness of those offenses we receive.
If you are searching for some good resources to supplement your study of the Word regarding forgiveness, I'd like to point you in the direction of two books by the late Dr. Lewis Smedes. His books Forgive and Forget and The Art of Forgiving -- a great book on the How-to's of forgiveness and extremely practical -- are standard-bearers among books that speak to the whole arena (spiritually, emotionally, socially and ethically) of forgiveness.
Remember, "we are never more like God than when we choose to forgive."
Have a great Tuesday!
