Dear Ones,
  Hope you have a good day and connect with others! More snow early this morning! Emoji Today is exercise class and crafts and Bible study tonight. I tried making Starch free pizza that Al and I already sampled it and it isn’t too bad.Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  Loneliness is certainly rising in our culture today and so many feel disconnected but don’t know how to have meaningful relationships. I am reading a book by Todd Hall who is an author and a Psychology professor at Biola University where he teaches several courses. He writes about how we all long for a deep sense of meaning if we are to make sense of our lives. So few know how to find that meaning and may go about it in unhealthy ways.
  Perhaps we have all felt emptiness at times when we fail in making connections with others; it is sad but people today are lonelier than ever and having a harder time to socially and spiritually connect. Many feel isolated and empty and lack the feeling of belonging.
   Hopefully, as we go through life, that we desire to connect first of all with the Lord and then with others He has put in our lives. We all need other people and as Todd says, to know and be known, to love and be loved.
  Loneliness is growing in epidemic proportions in the breakdown of families and most often children are caught in the cracks to fend for themselves. They miss seeing firsthand what it is like to have healthy relationships and don’t have a secure base from which to view life. We don’t have nearly as much face -to-face contacts today for I have heard others describe their best friend who they have never met but only are known from texting.
    I grew up in a neighborhood where we did so much together with parties, parades, picnics, and  caring for one another.. In our church we had many close relationships. But if we don’t let others into our lives then we build walls and block God our of our lives too.
   Todd says that we can try the will power approach, or the intellectual approach or the spiritual-emotional high approach but we will still not feel connected with God and others. We need the relational approach for God made us for relationship with Him and with others. He wrote that we are loved into loving by God and others in our lives. We love others only because God first loved us. (I John 4:19). May we see how our implicit relational knowledge transforms how we relate to God and others in our lives.
Challenge for today: Open your heart in new ways to the love God desires to pour into you.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy