August 3, 2022

Dear Ones,

  Hope you are enjoying this lovely summer day! I just finished making 2 spaghetti pies and soon going to my exercise class; this evening we have Bible Studay.  We PTL that our son Mark’s family made it from N.C to Kansas yesterday and are with Kurt’s family now. We look forward to their coming here on Monday!  

 Devotions from Judy’s heart

   we say we are growing in our life with the Lord like seeds that have been planted in the ground and taken root? In Mark 4, we find the parable that Jesus shared about the Sower and the seeds that fell on the path, the rocky soil, the thorny soil and the good soil.  We can ask ourselves if we are firmly planted in the good soil and growing in our spiritual lives and producing a good crop.

   Outside my window as I write, there are many trees, the courtyard, and also two fire lanes with lovely colorful flowers planted between by volunteers. Next door to us is the Assisted Living complex, where there are no flowers planted in the space between the lanes; but one elderly woman has a determined mission. Amongst all the weeds and grass, she has cleared out two small spaces to plant cucumber seeds. This was no small task for her frail body, as one morning at 5 a.m. Al had to go help her up as she was sitting on the pavement by her plants and could not get up. Another day we came upon her as we were going for our walk and helped her as she had fallen and had gotten a goose egg on her forehead. That however, has not deterred her for she is faithful to water her two plants and tend them. One kind elderly man also helped her by cutting around the cucumber plants with a trimmer. These seeds have been well cared for and can you imagine the joy this woman is going to experience when she sees the first fruit of her labors and tastes the cucumbers!

  How well do we tend the seeds that the Lord has planted in our hearts? Do we respond by spending time in the Word for our nurturance, and drink in the water of the Holy Spirit? Do we sit quietly in the sunshine of His presence and just bask in His love? Without tending and care we won’t grow, and the fruit the Lord would want to produce through us will be thwarted. How sad that is. I know I have missed opportunities to respond to the Holy Spirit and am regretful afterwards. Just recently I was asked to do something that I didn’t really want to do, but later confessed it to the Lord and did it…but the joy wasn’t the same if I had done it gladly the first time.  Let us be mindful of the seed the Lord has planted in our hearts and as it says in Mark 4:20 may He say of us, “They hear the Word, accept it, and produce crops-thirty, sixty or one hundred times as much as was planted.”

   Challenge for today: Tend the seed that is within you and let your roots go down deep into His love.