Dear Ones,
Hope you are keeping warm during these cold days. Yesterday got down to -22 and today the low is -12. Emoji I love to bake when it is cold and the apartment is full of good aromas. I plan to go to Exercise class and Creative Crafts and later Bible Study at church.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
As we have watched on TV the fires burning in California and seen the faces of those that have lost everything, it is very sobering. How must it feel to have everything you own gone in a few minutes leaving you with no home, nothing familiar and nowhere to go. I have been reading a book about the Benedictines who don’t possess anything and when they become a monk, they give everything to the monastery or to family etc. and then share with all. Some nuns inscribed their books with ad usus before their names, meaning “for the use of”. Maybe that is how we should think of our possessions. I am using this item now, but I hold it loosely that it can be shared with you as well.

We must guard against greed and not think we have to consume more to be happy. All we have belongs to the Lord anyway and we can have joy in sharing what we have with others. I’m sure we have all seen the child who piles his favorite toys together and then guards them so no one else will be able to play with them, only him.  How sad for he is not free to really enjoy his things until he opens his hands to share with others. We need to not get preoccupied with getting things but hold all that we have loosely and be ready to share as we are led by the Lord.

Having a lot doesn’t necessarily make it easier to share for some who are poor are more generous to others than the rich. When Al was in seminary, we were poor and lived on his small parttime job paycheck, but we always had enough to have company over and give in different ways. It all has to do with the heart, and we need to be content with what we have and also be free to share when prompted. It says in Heb. 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Joy comes not when we are preoccupied with getting more for ourselves but in sharing with others.  Let us trust God in all things and live simply that with heaven in view.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to help you see the various needs around you and to open your heart and your hands.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy