Corona Devotionals

I was looking for something different to make for a dessert this week, and lemon bars popped into my mind.  I made a batch, and when one of my BFF's (best friends forever) stopped over the other day, I offered her some.  She smiled and then told me that just the night before, she had wanted  lemon bars, but wasn't feeling up to making them.   And yet, here they were, and she was excited. Take delight in the  Lord ,  and he will give you the desires of your heart.  ~Psalm 37:4 🍋 ~~~ Similarly, since last week, I have had a taste for butterscotch.  So much so, that I asked my kids if they would help me eat some butterscotch cookies if I made them?  Nope--my kids did not think that butterscotch sounded delicious, and so, I didn't make them.  ...But, I still had the desire for them. Fast-forward a few days when we met my brother and sister-in-law for supper and BOOM!  Didn't my brother have a baggie of home-made butterscotch cookies to give me.   "I'm not sure if

A couple years ago, while on vacation, my husband took us to a quarry to search for gems.  I've done the commercialized panning for gems at tourist attractions, where they give you a bag of dirt and everyone magically finds a few "gems", but this was not like that.   Miles (and miles) off the beaten path and down an eventually unpaved road, cars spilled into a makeshift dirt parking lot in the middle of six-acres of dirt, and hills of dirt, and caves of dirt, and tons of dirt.  It was a quarry.   And after you had paid your $10 per person, they let you wander.  Nothing was provided, but you were welcome to bring whatever you wanted to aid in your gem-uncovering adventures, from shovels to pick-axes, to flashlights, to 5-gallon buckets for dipping and rinsing "finds"...people had everything and people were trying everything  to find their possible treasures of amethyst, aquamarine, quartz, garnet, and of course, diamonds. We came away with sore backs, some tiny

Up against something today?  Something big (and bad!) and out of your control?   I know how that feels.   We  braced ourselves.  We prayed hard and invited others to join.  I went to bed on my knees and woke up multiple times in the night to continue asking God's help, protection, and salvation over the situation we were facing.  (We needed saved!) Our predicament had every potential and indication of being bad, catastrophic even ,  and we had not one ounce of control over any remedy or resolution of it.  We were powerless...but not prayerless.  Oh, how I prayed.  And then, groping for my Bible, I sat alone with God's Word, which then prayed for me: Save me, O God, f or the floodwaters are up to my neck.  ( 2)  Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire;  I can’t find a foothold.   I am in deep water, a nd the floods overwhelm me.   ( 3)  I am exhausted from crying for help;  my throat is parched.   My eyes are swollen with weeping,  waiting for my God to help me.   ( 4)  Those wh

I'm not sure if you have squirrels where you live, but we do.  In the Spring, Summer, and Fall, they jump from tree to tree, skitter along the ground, and tight-rope walk across electric lines, but in the Winter, the squirrels are mostly absent...hidden away in scruffy, messy-looking leafy nests that (somehow!) stay perched high in our backyard treetops.   Maybe you've seen a squirrel nest or you have some in your own backyard trees.   I can't figure those squirrel nests out.   The weather where we live in Winter is cold.  Squirrels are small, thin animals with not  a lot of meat on their bones and no blubber.  How do they stay warm in those nests ?   And the nests!  They look fragile (to me), as if they could blow right out of the empty tree tops, but they never do .  I've watched our trees sway in the wind and bend in the bluster of snow, and yet, I've never watched a nest fall.  They  are pressed on every side by trouble  some days,  but they  are not crushed. .

Have we ever been a part of God's plan, but we didn't know it at the time?   In His sovereignty, God directed our steps/words/prayers, or all of them...and it was all for His glory, but we had no idea? ~~~ I shared in my monthly story-reading at our city nursing home a couple weeks back.  One of my "regulars" was not gathered, and although he is almost non-verbal, I missed him.  His eyes smile bigger than anyone's I know.  When he does speak, it takes time, but he has a wonderful sense of humor.  And whenever I pray with him, he cries, but I know it's not because he is sad, it's just because his emotions tumble out without the control that you and I have.   But where was he?, I asked the activities director, and her face clouded as she told me that he had been sick with pneumonia and because of swallowing difficulties, they had put a feeding tube in.   Yeesh!  That would take me out of story-hour too, but I found him in his room after I was done.   Althoug

What is the (very) first thing we do each day?  What gets us out of bed morning by morning ?  He wakens me and opens my understanding to his will.  ~Isaiah 50:4 I've been to gorgeous beaches.  I've seen the majesty of the Grand Canyon.  I've enjoyed countries, climates, peoples, and precious times with my family.  But nothing (nothing!) compares beauty, power and meaning of spending time with the Lord, and when He  opens my understanding to his will . Morning by morning he wakens me  and opens my understanding to his will.  ~ Isaiah 50:4 It is a crazy miracle that God actually/mercifully/powerfully opens our understanding to His will when we read His word and study it.  When we get quiet and commune with Him.  When we talk to him and listen to Him. It is beyond any natural or emotional experience that we can find in this world...it is super- natural.  And every day, ( Morning by morning ) He invites us to join Him. This invitation and gift (from our  Sovereign Lord ) sh