Dear Ones,
Hope you have a sunny day but not too warm! Emoji I plan to try a new recipe today and have Al be my food critic; later we are invited to friends for fellowship and prayer. (always a good dessert and coffee too!)
Devotions from Judy’s heart
 Are there days we wake up and want to pull the covers over our head and just skip work or anything else that is on our agenda for the day? Maybe we feel down and want to mope, but we have children waiting to be fed, workers depending on us etc.  So, what can we do to get ourselves back on track?
  Writer, Jessica Kastner, writes on Crosswalk.com about ways to praise yourself out of a funk. Maybe her suggestions will help if we are feeling gloomy and glum. I like her first suggestion of praising the Lord, as it is something I have found that helps keep my focus on the Lord. If I am in the car (alone), I just begin singing to Him in praise. No matter what is happening around us, we can sing praise to the Lord because we know Him and He is in control. Nothing happens outside of His awareness. It helps also to read or sing the Psalms for there seems to be a Psalm for every mood we are in. David wrote many and was often in terrible circumstances with his life on the line. If we pick one to memorize then we can pray or even sing it to the Lord when we are in those hard times. One suggested was Psalm 18 and verse 1 and two are a good start: ”I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” I also love Psalm 121 and 91…   Another suggestion Kastner makes is to make a gratitude list of answered prayers and things we are thankful. A friend that I regularly pray with and I, did the exercise of writing down 5 things each day that we are grateful for. It is a great practice as it helps me to see God’s hand in everything around me and I am filled with thanks.
Helping others and praying for them will also aid us in getting out of a funk, for our attention is not just on me, me, me, but others who need help and are going through hard things. If we pray for them, the Lord often shows us how He can use us to help them in some way.
We might also take a walk out in nature that seems to just lift our spirit. Al and I try to walk each day and being in the woods and feeling the sun on our faces just brings refreshment to us. Sometimes we go alone, and it can become a worship time as well. As we lift our hearts to Him in praise there is no room for negative thoughts, and we can rest whatever concerns us into His hands.
Challenge for today: Memorize scripture that you can rehearse next time you are in a funk.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy