Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the weekend. It is a sunny day and it is quickly melting the snow. Yesterday afternoon we had a record crowd for the Birthday party and not one piece of cake left. EmojiI did food prep this morning and tomorrow we serve at church. Our son Kurt stopped by on his way home from the lake after a good time with his buddies at the cabin.  
Devotions from Judy’s heart
There are no perfectly put together people but only wounded ones just like us. Some of us may have disabilities that are obvious but most of us have hidden wounds that are painful from our past.  Those that are physically handicapped seem to get more sympathy than those with psychological problems. We seem to show less patience towards others with hurts that are hidden, and wonder why they don’t just make changes and shape up.  The bottom line is that we all have disabilities that we try to hide, so let us not be quick to judge one another.
But God wants us to be open to healing and accept others also that need His healing power. Peter van Breeman writes how we must let ourselves be healed by others and open ourselves to healing, correction and deeper self-knowledge. He uses the example of Teresa of Avila who said she learned the most from her enemies; that is because they teach us most how to love. It goes beyond warm feelings to crying out to the Lord to give us His love for others. We know we can’t do it on our own. God uses the most difficult people that come into our lives to work for good, and it becomes all grace. Lord, I can’t do this, I can’t love this person, but you can love them through me.
All people also need respect and if respect is lacking then we know love is also lacking.
We have Jesus’ command to love our neighbor as ourselves, (Matt. 22: 39). When we truly love ourselves, only then we can love our neighbor. Jesus also goes on to say that we are to love our neighbor as He loves. That is a tall order! We can only love with the love that we receive from the Lord and then pass it on. Our love is puny and gets impatient and quickly runs out. Only through receiving His love, do we have it to pass through us to others. Let us also remember that our hearts need to be open wide as well to receive the love the Lord is pouring into us through others.
Challenge for today: Confess when you lack love for an individual and ask the Lord for His love to pour through you to that person.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy