Dear Ones, Happy weekend! May you have time to relax and be refreshed!  Today I plan to do food prep and to clean the apartment and walk on the Paul Bunyan Trail.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
All of us must be on guard against faulty thinking. It can do great damage in our lives, as it limits what we can experience and can leave us feeling hopeless, guilty and lacking peace. Mark Twain said, “It isn’t what you don’t know that hurts you, it is what you know that isn’t so.”

Oh, how much trouble we can get into when we think we know what is going through the minds of others and make sweeping statements! Maybe we are meeting a friend for lunch and she shows up very late, so we conclude she doesn’t consider us important. Later we find out she was held up helping someone who needed aid. Or maybe we wonder why a co-worker fails to answer our e-mail and we assume he doesn’t respect our leadership, but the truth is he was sick and neglected to check his e-mail. We can also blow things out of proportion in our minds, and because we made a minor mistake, we say that we are a total failure.

Often we can get stuck in our thinking and believe nothing will ever change. We may not have faith to believe someone in our family will not always be a problem or that one day we will have a good marriage. But the truth is, the past doesn’t predict our future. Jesus can bring change in our lives and we can learn, grow and stop repeating old patterns. But we have to give up our faulty thinking and not follow feelings that are misleading. We need to stop reading the minds of others, assuming we know that they are thinking, for we may be way off. Also, we must be willing to do something different when what we are presently doing is not working.

Rather than complain of our circumstances, let us get a new mindset and allow the Holy Spirit to bring change in our thinking that aligns with truth. Paul said, “Take every thought captive to obey Christ.” II Cor. 10:5

Challenge for today: Be done with faulty thinking and making assumptions about others without finding out the facts.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy