Dear Ones,
Hope you had a good weekend and kept warm. What a change and soon it will get hot again. Today I have a dermatology appointment and exercise class and this afternoon we are invited to friends for fellowship and prayer.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Recently I asked all of you, who are the people in your life that sacrificed for you? I got many responses back but one really impacted me, as Al and I know well the person she is writing about.  Her mom was in our college group that met in our home. She went on to get married, have eight children, and later died and went to be with the Lord.  Her mom brought her first baby, Ruth, over for us to see and thereafter she visited us in every one of our parsonages with her family as I would invite them for a day of fun, lunch, games and prizes. The younger sister, Hope, writes of her older sister Ruth.

“In answer to your question, one of the very first individuals that comes to mind about self-sacrifice is my oldest sister Ruth. She took on an enormous weight of responsibility when our mom was going through cancer treatments for the first time in 2001. Ruth sacrificed her childhood to care for an ill mother and 7 younger siblings.

She cooked, cleaned, and cared for us younger siblings. She was a young adult being in a parent role at the age of 16. It was a weight she should not have had to carry all by herself, but she did a great job, not perfect, but she did it to the best of her abilities. Even coming to care for our Mom when we could no longer care for her needs at home, Ruth and her husband Martin drove from Alaska to MN to help mom transition to a care facility and help clean and sell her home as required by the state to cover her facility costs.

The name Ruth means beautiful friend and that is who my sister Ruth is! She loves like Jesus and goes the extra mile. She is prayerful and her children already love the Lord by the example of Him they see in their mom.

I am doubly blessed to have a sister in the Lord who is also my biological sister. All the memories of childhood intermingled with the valleys and mountaintops of our faith in Jesus makes our bond so much dearer and stronger than most relationships I have. When I look at my sister Ruthie, I see a beautiful friend, a prayer warrior, and an example of a true follower in our Lord Jesus!! She laid aside her life to serve our mom and us younger children, and I am so grateful for her friendship in this life!”

Challenge for today: Meditate on Rom. 12:1, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.”
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy