Dear Ones, Hope you have a blessed day. Al will be preaching this morning next door at Assisted Living and I plan to do food prep and try a new recipe; also go to my exercise class, Craft Class and later Bible Study.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Spring is coming (even though we have snow on the ground now), and I love to see the first wildflowers peeking out of the ground after a cold winter. It’s also a reminder of new beginnings, a fresh start, a new chapter in our lives. Since we were a pastor’s family, we had many new beginnings as we moved to a new place and a new congregation. That was exciting, but it was also hard to leave the old and familiar behind. We had to begin the process by letting go of the old. That meant saying good-bye to friends who had stood with us, prayed for us, and loved us, and it’s much like a death process. We didn’t know if we would see those friends again and we knew they would also have to open their hearts to the new pastor’s family who came next. But we can’t enter into the new if we don’t let go of the old, and who knows what God has planned ahead for us?

New seasons in our lives may not mean a change of location, but might be a new job, a new ministry and we need to be open to whatever it is that God has waiting for us. That calls for listening and finding out where the Lord wants to place us. We are not to rush ahead, but to wait for His timing when He will have everything in place. Only then should we move on to what is next and do it with an expectant heart.

As Al and I age, God moves us on into a more hidden time, and we have to take care for ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually. We are no longer very visible, but spend a lot of time in secret with the Lord as we pray (our prayer list is very long), study, and write, etc. This is an easier transition for me than Al since I am an introvert and never liked being up front. But we have peace in where the Lord has placed us and we want to be fruitful in this fourth quarter of our lives. We hope that new growth will pop up out of the soil of our hearts, just like when we walk the Paul Bunyan trail and see new life.

Let us all be open to times of transition in our lives, when the Lord opens a new door to us and we have to say good-bye to the old. We never know what awaits us, but like the Psalmist said in Psalm 86, “Oh sing to the Lord a new song…Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Declare His glory amongst the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!”

Challenge for today: Be open to whatever new things the Lord has waiting for you, and be willing to bid farewell to the old.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy