Dear Ones,
May you have a restful and beautiful weekend! The big oak tree that I see from my window is now in full array and so beautiful to look out on. We had a great Women’s night out last night 
Today I plan to clean and get to Aldi’s for groceries and do some baking. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Let us be children of light who dwell in the light of His presence. No more in the shadows of the world but committed to Him who is the Light of the World.                                                             

We have lived almost 5 years at Northern Lakes and both Al and I have a big closet. Mine has a door on both sides of the closet and only one light bulb in the light fixture. All this time I have contended with not being able to see well to know if the shades of colors go well together or to read papers that I have stored in the closet file etc. So I would take the items out into the light in our bedroom to discern. But one day we asked maintenance man to come as we had several light bulbs going out in our high ceiling fixtures. I asked Greg to also replace the one in my closet and he not only put in two bulbs but had to take the fixture apart to fix it. When I came back to the apartment my closet was full of light and I thought, why didn’t I do something about this before.

How much of our Christian lives are lived more on the shadowy edge rather than in the center of the Light? We know Jesus but we don’t commit everything into His hands. The world subtlety creeps in, and even though we may have a feeling that things are not quite right, we may not do anything about it. When we live in the shadows though it erodes our faith. Perhaps we want to be spiritually mature in record time and don’t want to go through the slower training as His follower. Deep faith life does not just happen in an instant but more like being an apprentice as we learn from the Lord, the Word, and from mature Christians. But maybe we’d rather take a shortcut like taking a fast course or some new study method and skip the slower maturing process. It doesn’t work that way for it’s not all about obtaining information about God, but being in relationship with Him and learning as we walk and talk and work together. We let Him lead for He is the teacher and we are only the apprentice.

We need to keep our eyes on the Lord and learn from Him who is gentle and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:29). The only way we can do that is to walk as children of Light, enjoying His presence and learning from Him wherever He leads us and for however long it takes.

Challenge for today: Be aware of when you are drifting towards the shadows and choose to live in the Light.  
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

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