Daily Devotional #1,583

My Grandmother Pettit had a great, loving relationship with this Jesus of the Bible. She was passionate about her faith, and I have told others that I felt like she prayed me into the Kingdom of God! But the thing about my Grandmother was that she made life fun. She never had much in the way of material wealth, but she was one of the most generous people I have ever known. We would head back to Texas to visit her every other year and for two years, she would save up stuff in preparation for our coming. When we would sit down to eat in her small dining area, the plates would be upside down. Because she always had some kind of simple gift for us that we could have after she had said grace. And then for two years she would save all or at least much of her change and when we got there, she had a daily ritual where we would be asked to go to the refrigerator where she kept the change in a ceramic container with a lid on it. Why the fridge, you ask? Because she called it her “cold, hard cash”. And we were instructed to take our young hands and grab as much as we could because we would head down to the five and dime store with her and go shopping! But one of the things that I copied from her was that she would buy and save up soft drinks for us to have in the hot, humid Texas summer days. You could only get the small glass bottles but there would be stacks of the six packs of Cokes, Seven-ups and Dr. Peppers. They would find their way into that magical refrigerator and come out so cold that it almost hurt! I learned from my Grandmother that faith in this Jesus of the Bible leads to love for him and for the people around you. And when you love people, you make life better and so often like my Grandmother...you make life fun. So, take your faith, feed it so it will grow and then let others see it as you live out your life with love and joy...and hopefully some good old fashioned fun!

Here’s our Bible verse for today...

Matthew 5:16 NLT In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Remember I’m praying for you!
PJ