July 11, 2022

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We enjoyed our time of fellowship with friends on Saturday and love that we do it each summer. This morning I did food prep and I made S.F. Choc chip cookies and went to my exercise class. It’s sunny out now but we may need to walk earlier today as a storm is suppose to go through later. 

Devotions from Judy’s heaart

  There are people in life that go the second mile and make a difference, and sometimes it’s the little things done that matter most. We can all probably remember an uplifting word someone gave us when we felt discouraged, or an act of kindness done when we were in a tight situation. Those things are not quickly forgotten for they were may have changed the course of our life at a strategic moment.

   As we gathered with our friends who were on the Board of our former retreat house, so much love flowed. Al and I remembered how each one of them was used of God to bring us encouragement during the time we ran Canaan’s Rest and continues even now. We went around the group and gave prayer needs and also ways we were desiring to share the Lord right where we are now. All the couples are being used in their churches as some teach, lead worship, decorate the sanctuary, help on sound system, and preach. They also give silent sermons as they reach out into the community with His love in tangible ways of helping.

   We all need to be open to how the Holy Spirit would want to use each of us to make a difference for His kingdom. Often it may be a small practical act of kindness that shows the recipient that God sees them where they are. My cousin recently went to Assisted Living and gave out birthday cupcakes, in memory of her mom who use to live there but has since died. She visited her mom’s friends that they would know that they aren’t forgotten.

   Even the smallest acts of love let others know that the Lord sees them and remembers them. As it says in Isaiah 49:15b-16 (God’s Word), “Although mothers may forget, I will not forget you. I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are always in my presence.”

    Let us go the second mile and respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting when He directs us in expressing God’s love in a specific way, be it ever so small. We have no idea what a difference it can make.

   Challenge for today: Listen closely and obey when the Spirit directs you to reach out to others.