Dear Ones,
Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Today I am going to clean the apartment and testing out making a Novia Scotia Blueberry Cream cake for upcoming company!
Devotional from Judy’s heart
Each of us have a story to tell of our life: our faith journey, and how we responded in life to hardships that happened to us. No two stories would be alike even if we went through the exact same circumstances since we all view them in our own unique way. We can tell that when siblings from the same family share about growing up and you wonder if it is the same family for they may view things so differently. My siblings get my devotionals, and I wonder if they viewed my folks the same way I did and how they felt about life at the cabin, etc.

We are to honor our stories and the stories of others. When we share them we connect and feel we are heard, known, and loved. Sometimes it may surprise us what comes out of our lips when sharing our story with a trusted friend. We may not have realized the deep feelings underneath our words, seeing something new and how God was with us in a hard time. And maybe we see how our past and present are shaping us for what is ahead. It’s important to share the struggles we go through as well as the positive things. Even when we look back on something that was difficult, we may see good in that it helped us grow in new ways.

Christians need to be real so those new in their faith know that we have struggles also, and we get angry at our spouse, get irritated, etc. I know when Al has shared in his sermon that we had a fight, he had everyone’s attention!! Sometimes others have shared with us that they almost learn more from our struggles than our shared victories. We are all getting older and it helps to share struggles of limitations, illnesses, and things we can’t change.

Of course, God’s story trumps all other stories, for He is our creator, our Savior, our Lord and we look forward to the final day when He returns and the marriage feast of the Lamb. Let us all live joyously, for we know how the story ends, and we will be with Him forever with no more pain or tears!

Challenge for today: Use opportunities to tell your faith story to others, and also listen to their story with interest and compassion.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy