Day 1
Read John 3:16
“For God so loved the world…” This doesn’t say God loves those who do something for him. God loves us as we are! Every time you see someone today remind yourself of this wonderful truth – “God loves him or her”. Every time you look in the mirror remind yourself – “God loves me”.
Today's devotional is fairly straight forward and simple. Although, it's 4:30 pm and I have yet to look at myself in the mirror once today to remind myself that God loves me. With the day I've had, I think it'd be a good idea :-)
Jill, I appreciate your simple truth. As a woman, most days I'm not fond of my body or something about it...but that's the way God made me. And He loves me dearly.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side of the coin, I've had to be deliberate with my thoughts about others. To be very transparent, I have struggled for a long time with judging others. For many years I didn't think much of it, but just recently, God's laid it on my heart to remember that he made that other person just as special as he made me. And God loves him just as much as me. At work specifically, my thoughts were very 'click-y'... frustrated about the "smokers" who were always outside...we had plenty to do and not enough time to do it; frustrated with the childish attitudes...aren't we all adults? frustrated with the people who chose the 'woe is me' attitude, especially those who may believe it's OWED to them. Reminding myself, "I've worked hard to get where I am", and carrying the attitude that if you don't like me, I won't like you. But God is working on me. I try to smile to those I pass in the hall. I especially try and smile and say 'good morning' to all the smokers who are already outside, at 8 am, when I pull up to the building. I think I've done a good job showing those who directly report to me that I care about them as people, more than I care about the job they do. But it should be more than that. It should be everyone I come in contact with. If I - a Christian - can't be a light in this very dark, evil world, who will be? It goes back to being salt; being light. It's our charge from Christ, and I need to remind myself daily of this work to do.
Ladies I love your comments! Thanks for sharing from your heart.
ReplyDeleteKelli I struggle a lot with this very thing. god is working on me. I especially need to remember daily that "God loves the little children" as I go throughout my day. Knowing this devotional today it helped me in my reactions to the kids I was much more patient and I could sense God's presence telling me to take a breathe and to be gentle.
The comments today are really great! Kelli I so appreciate your comments especially today. First thing this morning I am going to a meeting to meet with people who are unhappy and circumvented the system to complain to their leadership. We have been called to help them. It is likely to be a very negative meeting. It will be easy to forget they are people loved by God also and I will likely struggle to maintain the love of Christ in responding to their issues. It will be good to know there are others going through the same types of struggles this morning.
ReplyDeleteHope your meeting went well. :) Tell us about it tomorrow.
ReplyDelete