Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the day the Lord has made! This morning I made meatloaf, and cleaned the apartment and went downstairs for donuts. Al had Men’s group and this afternoon will lead Bible study here. We have friends from Remer coming after that and we look forward to a time of catching up. 
  Devotions from Judy’s heart 
  How many times have we had high expectations, only to have them dashed by reality? When this happens, we have to regroup or recalculate and go forward with what is.
  I smile as I think of the family that some time ago, went fishing a short distance from our dock when we lived by the lake. The couple had a small child and a dog in the boat, and likely had dreams of catching fish and enjoying the quiet evening. But it wasn’t long before we heard a terrible commotion as the dad hooked a loon with his bait and the loon was loudly squawking. Not only that, but the dog was franticly barking and trying to jump up which started the little child crying and also the mom. The dad tried to shut everyone up and although this went on for some time, we were never sure how the problem got solved. All their good expectations went down the drain.
   I’m sure we have all had experiences when we anticipated something good but turned out to be disappointing.  Of course, such things are   not a surprise to the Lord and He has things to teach us even through adverse things.  We may even see how He as prepared us ahead of time, although we were not aware at the time. Like me, maybe you also had things in your schedule that you were not anticipating, perhaps dreading, and yet it turned out to be a great blessing. God sees the whole picture and we have peace as we depend on Him and trust all our moments of each day into His hands. We will experience sunny good times but there are also dark cloudy times and He is with us in all of them.
    Sometimes He also sprinkles little surprises along the way! One day when Al and I walked with dear friends on the Paul Bunyan trail a deer appeared right near the path. He did not seem the least bit afraid of us. So, what did we do?  We stopped and were moved to serenade him with the song, Jesus Loves Me. Our friend said that God used His creation to bring out the child in each of us that day. As the song goes, “Jesus loves me! He will stay close beside me all the way. Thou hast bled and died for me, I will henceforth live for Thee.”
  Let us live for the Lord, whether or not we think He has met our expectations for this day, and rest in that assurance He knows best.
  Challenge for today: Give your expectations to the Lord and in faith, let Him direct you each day.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy