Dear Ones,
Happy Labor Day! Hope you take time to celebrate. We are home now after a fun time at the lake. We enjoyed a wiener roast with about 20 relatives one evening, went to our former church and dinner at Ann’s afterwards, and then headed home when the thermometer reached 100 degrees! 
I am making egg dishes and cookies and then we are going for our walk on the trail early before it heats up again. Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Happy Labor Day to you! Perhaps today each of us will give some thought to the work we do and also rest on this national Holiday from our work. This morning I read about what Mark Roberts of Fuller Seminary writes about work beginning with how God was the first worker in creating the heavens and the earth and all that is in it, including us…and it was all good! God worked 6 days but then on the seventh day He rested from His work. He left us a great rhythm for us to follow also.

Work is good but like my mom use to say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!’ We need balance in our lives or we will actually get exhausted, bored, and less sharp when we work continuously. We can thank the Lord for the ways we experience His goodness in our work but then also take some time off from the constant pressures and to relax and play.

I thought I would share with you the prayer that Roberts gave for today:

“Gracious God, thank you for what we learn about work from Genesis. Thank you for being the first worker. Thank you for doing good work. Thank you for creating us in your image. Thank you for creating us to be workers and for giving us good work to do. Thank you for resting on the seventh day, giving us the gift of sabbath.

Help me, I pray, to see how I experience goodness in my work. Teach me to take delight in this and to give you thanks.

Help me also, Lord, to see where my work falls short of what you intended from the beginning. May I be committed to doing all I can to help those with whom I work to be treated as beings created in your image, starting with my colleagues and direct reports. 

In the classic words of St. Ignatius, when it comes to my work, ‘Grant, Lord, that all my intentions, actions, and operations be directed purely to your praise and your service.’ Amen.”

Challenge for today: Thank the Lord for the gift of work and find a new way to relax and rest.