July 9, 2025

Sorry I am late today. I was clearing out furniture so our furnace could be put in and totally forgot!

Dear Ones,

Hope your day is full of opportunities to share the Lord. This morning we are getting a new furnace/A.C. unit as it is all worn out and needed replacement! Also, I have Exercise, Crafts, dinner out with missionaries and then Bible Study. I have poison ivy on my nose so it is also a humbling time to be seen!  Your question for this week is: Am I open to let others know of my love for the Lord and look for opportunities to share Him?

Devotions from Judy’s heart

God can use even the smallest things in life to touch a heart and change a life…even something so small as a cookie on a stick. Those of you who know me also know that I Iove making chocolate chip cookies on a stick to give to children and also adults. Each time I visit a friend in assisted living I bring her a plateful of cookies on a stick, along with chocolate cake smothered with chocolate frosting, root beer and candy. Since it is rare for her to get a visit from any relative, she is very appreciative when I come, for we share the Lord together and pray. When leaving I feel I am the one that has been blessed by her positive attitude and thankful heart.

On the 4^th of July when I brought her more treats, she told me how she shared one of the cookies I had given her with a man who had recently been placed at her table in the dining area. He has colon cancer that has metastasized all over his body and was feeling depressed and alone since he is expected to die soon. But when my friend engaged him in conversation at mealtimes, she also gave him one of her treasured cookies and his whole attitude changed. It was almost unbelievable to her to see the transformation in him, what a small gesture can do as an act of sharing God’s love.

Usually my friend eats the first two meals of the day in the dining room, but then for supper has only a piece of chocolate cake or a cookie on a stick. While I was in the midst of writing this devotional, she called me with great excitement sharing her experience with this new friend at lunch time after she asked him if he knew the Lord. When he said yes, she then proceeded to tell him the very things she and I had talked and prayed about for him when I last visited. She expressed to him the joy that soon he would be with the Lord in glory and would not need his wheelchair, for he would be walking and leaping and praising the Lord. She herself is also in a wheelchair and looking forward to the day she would do the same. My friend was so excited that God could use her to help bring comfort to her new friend and prepare him for eternity.

I was reminded of Jeus word to His disciples in Matt.10:8, “Freely you have received, freely give.” We have all been blessed by the Lord and received His wonderful gifts; let us not hoard them but give as the Holy Spirit directs us. It took only a little cookie on a stick to begin the mindset change of a discouraged dying man to receive the good news, find hope and experience love. Who knows what He will do when you offer up even your seemingly smallest gift to bless others.