Dear Ones,
Happy weekend to you! Hope you can have time to get refreshed. I just finished making cookies on a stick, and Al is the bowl-licker and the cookie taster! Although you will read I look terrible I feel fine! 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Are we people of the heart? Do we look past the outward to sense what is going on within? We must be more than people of head knowledge and seek also to have heart knowledge, not only concerning the Lord, but others and ourselves. Right now, if you looked only at my outward, it is not a pretty sight. I have scabs on my lips and some of my face from an ointment I had to put on for a month for precancer as I spent much of my life in the sun. Then there are my teeth; I have two empty spaces where my future implants will be going but are not in yet. To add to it, I suddenly have a stye in my eye which I have not had since a child. So, I am counting on people to look past my outward and see my heart instead!
We should not judge others by their outward looks and even behavior because there is often a reason behind how they look and act. One man who is severely deformed is that way from saving someone from a burning car. Those scars are beauty scars in the Lord’s eyes and should be in our eyes too. Or the screaming child who refuses to go in the shallow end of the pool. He is not being obstinate but fearful because he nearly drowned while at the lake. He needs the reassuring voice of love to take away his fear. Or the weeping woman whose cries we want to have silence, but she weeps because the child within her is no more. Let us not be surface people who only deal with the superficial, but heart people that see in depth and sense the hurts of others. When we learn to see as Jesus sees, our hearts will be broken for others also, and they will sense it. Most important we need to open our hearts wide to the Lord and let Him show us what we may be trying to hide. Only then can we sincerely pray as David in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” If we dare pray this daily and mean it, our lives will be changed from the inside out, for He will take away that things in our lives that cause distance from the Lord and help us to also open wide our hearts to others.
Challenge for today: Make Psalm 139:23-24 your prayer today!
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy
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