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Posted on 04/30/2021 10:23:24 PM PDT by JustAmy
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Good Night Kitty Mittens
🌺🌸🌼
🌙💫🌟
Bible in a Year:
She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.
She loaded the plastic container of cupcakes onto the conveyor belt, sending it toward the cashier. Next came the birthday card and various bags of chips. Hair escaped from her ponytail, crowning her fatigued forehead. Her toddler clamored for attention. The clerk announced the total and the mom’s face fell. “Oh, I guess I’ll have to put something back. But these are for her party,” she sighed, glancing regretfully at her child.
Standing behind her in line, another customer recognized such pain. Jesus’ words to Mary of Bethany echoed in her mind: “She did what she could” (Mark 14:8). After anointing Him with a bottle of expensive nard before His death and burial, Mary was ridiculed by the disciples. Jesus corrected His followers by celebrating what she had done. He didn’t say, “She did all she could,” but rather, “She did what she could.” The lavish cost of the perfume wasn’t His point. It was Mary’s investment of her love in action that mattered. A relationship with Jesus results in a response.
In that moment, before the mom could object, the second customer leaned forward and inserted her credit card into the reader, paying for the purchase. It wasn’t a large expense, and she had extra funds that month. But to that mom, it was everything. A gesture of pure love poured out in her moment of need.
Reflect & Pray
In what unexpected ways has Jesus helped you? What might you do—not all, but what—to love Jesus back in a need you see today?
Father, open my eyes to see You inviting me to do what I can do today.
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Those are some of the prettiest dogs on the planet. :)
Indeed they are! :-)
Bible in a Year:
Walk humbly with your God.
I’d see her welcoming the dawn each day. She was our local power walker. As I drove my kids to school, she’d be there on the road’s shoulder. Equipped with an oversized pair of headphones and knee-high, colorful socks, she walked with an alternating movement of arms and feet, always with one foot in contact with the ground. The sport is different from running or jogging. Power walking involves an intentional restraint, a reining in of the body’s natural inclination to run. Although it doesn’t look like it, there’s just as much energy, focus, and power involved as in running or jogging. But it’s under control.
Power under control—that’s the key. Biblical humility, like power walking, is often viewed as weakness. The truth is, it’s not. Humility isn’t diminishing our strengths or abilities, but rather allowing them to be reined in much like the arms and legs and feet guided by the mind of an early morning power walker.
Micah’s words “walk humbly” are a call for us to rein in our inclination to go ahead of God. He says “to act justly and to love mercy” (6:8), and that can bring with it a desire to do something and do it fast. That’s fair since the daily injustices in our world are so overwhelming. But we are to be controlled and directed by God. Our goal is to see His will and purposes accomplished in the dawning of His kingdom here on earth.
Reflect & Pray
In what circumstance have you “run ahead” of God? Do you usually view humility as a strength or a weakness? Why?
To walk humbly with You, O God, is not always easy. Train me, so that my steps are in tune with You and Your will.
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Ohh lovely rose! The big rose varieties don’t survive well here in the north. I have great luck with the Knockout series of roses. Smaller flowers but lots of them.
🌹
Hey, Moose had a bath last night.😁
In Mud? :-)
| I live in the Texas desert southwest. That bad week-long freeze that Texas had in February killed a lot of my plants, including my favorite rosebush, a very fragrant lavender called Neptune. I was sad to lose it. This is the last bloom it ever had late last fall.
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Wow, that is a beauty! Maybe can find a new one. 😕
Nope, in soapy water. 🙃
Ah! That kind of bath!
Was hot and humid here today. Did lots of yard work. Will be going to work tomorrow, where it is easier. 😅
Good night
⭐️🌟💫🌙
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