Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the weekend! Our apartment is full of aroma as I made 2 Mexican pies and a pot of chili. Also, cleaned today and hope to go through some papers to get rid of. We had an enjoyable afternoon with friends yesterday. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Our whole lives belong to the Lord! Everything we do during the day has purpose when we live for Him. There isn’t a division between what is spiritual and what is secular, for whatever we do we are to do it as unto the Lord. That makes even our mundane ordinary days bright with joy and promise. Since dealing with COVID, our lives have all changed and for many it means less meetings or going into work and more time at home.  For some it may mean no long commutes to the office and having more   time to spend with the Lord first thing in the morning. Rather than stressing to find time to sandwich in a Bible Study in a busy week, we now look forward to Bible study and getting out to be with others in fellowship.  (and social distancing of course) Hopefully we have grown during this time and have learned to love others with differing views, spent more time in prayer, and practiced turning the other cheek. And hopefully we have experienced what it means to give all our cares to Him and not be anxious and full of worry. May we also have learned how important to leave room if the Lord should change our schedule and interrupt our plans, for we can be assured He has something greater that may be happening behind the scenes that we cannot see. Then as we look back at the end of the day, we may be in awe as to how the Lord worked out things to accomplish something greater for His kingdom. We must remember that every day is the Lord’s when we belong to Him and it says in Psalms 118:24(ESV), “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” There may be days we don’t feel like celebrating but we can tell Him how we feel and thank Him as He helps us to remember reasons to rejoice. Fred Hammond wrote a song based on this scripture and part of it goes, “No matter what comes next, I’m going to stand up and give Him praise ‘cause this is the day…. this is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made. I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it, glad in it.” Let us awaken with a song to sing to the One who gives us another day to praise Him.
Challenge for the day: Spend some time just praising the Lord for the many ways you have to rejoice in Him.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy