Dear Ones,
Hope you have a wonderful day. We have more snow and looks like winter again. Lucky me, this morning I get to go to the dentist again as I need a little work to be done, that was discovered yesterday. Emoji Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and we will be going to a soup supper at church and the service following.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Giving is an important part of our relating to others in our life and can be small instances of sharing like a simple meal to emotional sharing through deep communication. Giving expresses how we think and feel towards someone and may involve deep commitment at times. I am getting so much out of “Healing Emotions” by Psychologist Marin Padovani. He writes that self-giving is an act of love, primarily of the will and it is a choice and decision we make. Now it can be very sweet and tender, or it can be one of negative feelings. That surprised me as he still calls that a good act of self-giving even with no feelings at all. I guess like many others, I have thought it is not genuine unless we have positive feelings and do it with the right attitude. I’m sure I have actually said that to our kids when they were little. But Padovani wrote that while it is nice when those warm feelings are there, when there are not good feelings it is even a deeper act of love. The person is acting out of conviction and not simply based on feelings that fluctuate.

The story in the Bible that expresses that is the one where the father asks one of his sons to work in his vineyard and the son responds by saying that he will. When the father asks his other son to work in the vineyard, he says he will not. But if you know the story the second son went grumbling but did go and work and the first son never showed up even though he said he would. The second one only did his father’s will. Was his attitude good or based on his feelings. No, but he did it. Another example that may help marriages and made me smile. What if I would ask Al to go shopping with me and he clearly doesn’t not want to, but he says, “For you, I’ll do it!” My first reaction might be, if you can’t do it with a good attitude forget it. But Padovani says the fact that He is doing it without positive feelings is even more self-giving and valid and reassuring.

Now our granddaughter Paige is in the first year of her marriage, and there is probably an outflow of lots of tender feelings and good responses by both her and her hubby. But love is shown strong when we also do things for one another even without feeling warm fuzzies. Our giving should not be governed by our feelings for they are often fickle but hopefully we mature and give in new ways and experience God’s love at work through us.

Challenge for today: The next time you are prompted to give, respond to the Holy Spirit, even if you aren’t all excited about it, knowing God sees your obedience.
Have a blessed day and prayers and love, Judy