Dear Ones,
Happy weekend to you. I am sending this early to you since we will be on our way back home early tomorrow morning. Appreciate prayers for a safe journey. We have had a wonderful time here in KS with family and have full hearts and tummies too. We got to see Paige and Devin’s apartment and watched the game.  Hope you have had a wonderful and grateful Thanksgiving also!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
On our trip to Kansas, I was reading II Corinthians 5 from the Message translation and Paul tells the Corinthians, “Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing and that’s what we aim to do regardless of our conditions… His love has the first and last word in everything we do! Our firm decision is to work from this focused center…Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look …now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.”

When we know the Lord and His love that is put within us, we view others from a different perspective. We are done with being antagonistic and argumentative and we settle our differences and make things right. Others are also viewing us and looking to see how we respond and if we are quick to forgive. Because we are grateful for what the Lord has done for us, we express it in our lives by treating others with compassion and generosity and meeting their needs which may include not only physical needs but emotional and spiritual.

We might give ourselves a checkup, especially as we may be gathered over the holidays with relatives and friends that we don’t often see. Do we focus on petty differences or are we living wide open spacious lives with hearts open to include others in God’s love. Can they catch the aroma of the fragrance of God’s love. that seems to spill out on them or do we cancel others out because they don’t agree with us? Let us follow what Paul had to say and view them as ones for whom Christ died and can make new, and then live at peace with one another.

Challenge for today: Catch yourself when you find yourself judging others and reach out to them with God’s love.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy