Devotionals for the Heart: Reasons why you can trust God to catch you

Catch Me
A devotional by Jo Huddleston

“And, surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 
~Matthew 28:20 (NIV)

One sunny afternoon, I pushed my three-year-old granddaughter, Mallory, on her swing. Soon tired of swinging, she hopped off the swing and scampered up the ladder to the slide.

Mallory soon discovered she had a problem: the slide was too hot from the sunshine for her to rest her bare legs against the metal so that she could slide down. Compounding her dilemma, Mallory lacked the necessary coordination to retrace her climb back down the ladder.

I walked toward the slide, thinking she would ask me to lift her off. But, without warning, Mallory leapt through the air toward me. I wrapped my arms around her just as she latched onto me. Mallory had chosen me as an escape from her perch atop the slide.

“You catched me!” Mallory shouted. “Momma Jo, I love you,” she said.

Recalling Mallory’s joy, I remembered a time I made a leap of faith into God’s arms. Thirteen years earlier, I watched meningitis suck precious life from the still form of Paige, my college-aged daughter, now Mallory’s mother.

Lying curled in a fetal position in her hospital bed, my daughter moved only her eyes. She looked up at me and whispered, “Mother, this may be my time to die.” Holding her limp hand in mine, I leaned closer and said quietly, “Darling, it may be.” No panic or fear registered in her words or in her fevered eyes. She shared a labored smile with me and slowly closed her swollen eyes.

I didn’t curse God or offer Him any arguments or attempt to bargain with Him to spare Paige’s life. Just as Mallory had felt secure in my catching her, I trusted God for His comfort and everlasting strength to catch me.

By the next day, Paige’s health had made an unbelievable change for the better and two days later the doctors released her from their care. God had rescued my daughter, and I breathed, “God, I love You!”

In His Word, God promises to be with us always. If we accept His promises with the innocence and trust of a little child, we can know the security of having the “peace of God, which transcends all understanding.” ~Philippians 4:7 (NIV)

God is always ready to catch you in your time of trouble if you trust Him and obey His word. In your heart, take God’s promises as a lifeline, depend on His protection. God is the only unchanging part of life. Allow him to take care of you.

~*~
Author Bio:

Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author who writes novels inspired by her fascination with the 1950s and her love of her native American South. 

Novels in her endearing Caney Creek series, her West Virginia Mountains series, as well as her stand-alone release, Tidewater Summer, are sweet Southern romance novels. 

Her writing career includes more than 200 articles and short stories, which have appeared in over 50 well-known Christian and secular publications including Guideposts and Decision. She's an online contributor to Christian Devotions Ministries (www.ChristianDevotions.us).

Jo’s devotions appear in eight anthologies and she wrote devotions on assignment and freelance for the following daily devotionals: Devotions, Open Windows, Pathways to God, The Quiet Hour, The Secret Place, and The Upper Room.

She is a member of the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds a M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. Visit Jo online at this address, www.johuddleston.com.

Devotionals for the Heart: Be Kind

People Getting Along With People
A devotional by Jo Huddleston

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” ~Matthew 7:12 (NIV) 

We have seen America reel under unthinkable occurrences most wouldn’t have imagined could ever grace our history pages. Much of the good and the bad in our country springs from relationships between people.

We don’t all think alike nor do we come from similar backgrounds that influence our actions nor do we hold the same principles that govern our lifestyle. Differences are a distinguishing characteristic from person to person.

Differences tend to set us apart. We hold differing opinions on many issues and get excited about different things and cling to different values and virtues.

In light of all our differences, seeing eye-to-eye with everybody becomes a difficult task. Something that is needed or else we could never get along with many folks. Yes, something has to be done to the hard, dry soil of personalities before a right relationship can exist between people.

The Bible tells us a parable of the farmer, a sower of seeds (Matthew 13:1-10). Some of the seeds he planted fell along the path where the birds ate them. Some seeds fell on rocky places with little soil where they could not form adequate root systems and they died. Other seeds landed among thorns and were choked up by them. Finally, other seeds fell on good soil where they produced a fine crop.

Getting along with people can be likened to those seeds the farmer planted. All kinds of obstacles lie along the way to good human relationships. The rocky places and thorns are the differences we have.

In such cases, we must prepare the soil of differences so that we can realize a bumper crop of harmony and goodwill. The highest priority of preparation would be to put aside selfish desires. Putting other people first, loving one another. It’s all a thing of the heart.

Getting all these relationships correct is not easy. Just as farming is not easy. But following an unsuccessful crop, the farmer doesn’t quit. He goes out the next time, prepares the soil and plants again, striving toward that abundant, bumper crop.

Yes, the preparation indeed is often as important as the actual deed that is achieved. May we all continue preparing our hearts for a moral and ethical brotherhood of all people.

Embracing excellence, enthusiasm, courage, and compassion promises a wholesome outlook for America. The task will require generous measures of each of these principles, especially that of faith. America can shed her apathy and aim for a better today and greater tomorrows. She can submit to a divine purifying process and emerge a stronger, united country possessing these healing attributes.

I pray America chooses to turn toward her founding fathers’ worthy design for this nation.

~*~
Author Bio:

Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author who writes novels inspired by her fascination with the 1950s and her love of her native American South. 

Novels in her endearing Caney Creek series, her West Virginia Mountains series, as well as her stand-alone release, Tidewater Summer, are sweet Southern romance novels. 

Her writing career includes more than 200 articles and short stories, which have appeared in over 50 well-known Christian and secular publications including Guideposts and Decision. She's an online contributor to Christian Devotions Ministries (www.ChristianDevotions.us).

Jo’s devotions appear in eight anthologies and she wrote devotions on assignment and freelance for the following daily devotionals: Devotions, Open Windows, Pathways to God, The Quiet Hour, The Secret Place, and The Upper Room.

She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds an M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. Visit Jo at www.johuddleston.com.

Devotionals for the Heart: Serving God with ALL that you have to give

How Much Do I Have?
A devotional by Jo Huddleston

Nothing else in the house moved as I stumbled up the hall. I stood half asleep at my kitchen sink. Looking through half-closed blinds, I discovered what had interrupted my predawn sleep. On the deck, several pesky blue jays perched atop my patio table, ready to welcome a new day. Aggravated at them for disturbing me, I pecked impatiently on a window pane. With much fluttering, the birds scattered to nearby trees. All but one.

The lone bird pranced around the table top, tilting his head this way and that, beady black eyes searching for his would-be attacker. I raised the mini blind and pecked fiercely on the glass again. There! He looked my way—he’d found me. He stared at me; I glared at him. Appearing to know my threatening noises couldn’t harm him, he didn’t budge.

Then the concert began, his music as crisp and crystal clear as the day’s spring morning. Each warble imitated his previous one.

Each time he chirped, the little bird quivered from the black collar across his throat to the trembling tip of his brilliant blue tail feathers. Every inch of the bird moved to produce his melody.

This little bird put all his body behind each note—he gave it all he had. I forgot the blue jay’s peskiness, enjoying instead my private recital.

Watching from my quiet kitchen, I thought about the tremendous effort the little bird displayed. He certainly didn’t go about his singing in a halfhearted way.

I wondered if Christians could measure up to the blue jay. Are we as committed with our efforts of praise and worship?

I recalled some of Jesus’ examples. I remembered the widow who placed only two coins in the temple treasury as her offering (Mark 12:41-44). Compared to the rich who put in much, the widow’s gift pleased Jesus, for He said she “put in everything—all she had to live on” (Mark 12:44, NIV).

I remembered when Jesus fed the five thousand with only five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:5-14). The bread and fish belonged to a boy in the crowd. Apparently, it was all the food he had, but it proved sufficient for Jesus’ purpose.

Then I pondered, “How much have I given? Have much do I have?”

It makes no difference how much we have. Jesus demands our all when we accept Him as our Savior and Lord. Jesus answered the questioning Pharisees, saying the first and greatest commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37, NIV).

All we have. We must give all we have to love and serve God. Whether in our jobs, raising our children, church work or leisure time, God demands from Christian a 100 percent effort.

Like the little blue jay on my deck with only one song to sing, we must give it all we’ve got.

~*~
Author Bio:  

Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author who writes novels inspired by her fascination with the 1950s and her love of her native American South. 

Novels in her endearing Caney Creek series, her West Virginia Mountains series, as well as her stand-alone release, Tidewater Summer, are sweet Southern romance novels. 

She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds a M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. 

Visit Jo at www.johuddleston.com.

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Devotionals for the Heart: Jo's story about God's Healing Power

Equipment for Valley Travel
by Jo Huddleston

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:27).

My bedside vigil stretched into days as I watched meningitis suck precious life from the still form of my college-age child. Sunday afternoon I sat alone with my daughter, watching the disease apparently winning its battle. Gone were the twinkle in her eyes and the ready smile on her lips. The nurse had just left, the same one who had been coming in every 15 minutes to take vital signs. Pained and discouraged, I watched when she recorded on her chart a blood pressure reading only half what it should be.

Alone again in the hospital room, each of us experienced our own unique agony. Lying curled in a fetal position, my daughter moved only her eyes. With them almost swollen shut, she looked up at me through her consuming torture. "Mother, this may be my time to die," she whispered. No panic or fear registered in her words or in her fevered eyes.

The same thought had been silently hammering inside my mind all afternoon. Holding her limp hand in mine, I leaned closer and said quietly, "Darling, it may be." She shared a labored smile with me and slowly closed her eyes.

Amazingly, I did not curse God or offer him any arguments or attempt to bargain with Him to spare her life. I knew without doubt that my daughter believed in God's Son and trusted Him for her salvation and eternal life.

As precious minutes slipped away in that lonely hospital room, I trusted God for his comfort and everlasting strength to support me (Isaiah 26:4). I rested in the assurance that my daughter also claimed these same promises. I saw peace on her swollen face when she closed her eyes. We both accepted God's will.

Our pastor and his wife came by after evening church services. They barely concealed their shock at seeing my daughter’s hands and face twice their normal size. After speaking encouragement to her, they prayed with us in that still, quiet hospital room.

Looking back, I can only believe the Holy Spirit influenced every medical move my daughter's doctors and nurses made. The next day, her health made an unbelievable change for the better. Since she was fully recovered by Wednesday morning, the doctors released her from their care.

On Wednesday evening when our pastor found my daughter's hospital bed empty, he asked about her at the nurses’ station. Later he told us how much the nurses had marveled about her unexplainable recovery. "It's just a miracle that she survived," one nurse told him. We all smile now, knowing what absolute truth that nurse spoke.

Does a Christian experience valleys between the mountaintop experiences? Yes. Those trying days when it was evident I might outlive my daughter was one of the deepest valleys I’ve traveled. God promises His buffering strength and calming peace for valley travel. We can always cling to His promises, "For he himself is our peace" (Ephesians 2:14).

~*~
Author Bio: Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author who writes novels inspired by her fascination with the 1950s and her love of her native American South. 

Novels in her endearing Caney Creek series, her West Virginia Mountains series, as well as her stand-alone release, Tidewater Summer, are sweet Southern romance novels. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds an M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. 

Visit Jo at www.johuddleston.com. 

Spring into Love: A story about abuse and God's healing power

Interview with Jo Huddleston, author of Tidewater Summer:

Alexis: Does the title of your book have special significance? Explain.

Jo: The story in Tidewater Summer equates the turbulence and danger of the ocean’s tidewater to the heroine’s recent experience of physical abuse at the hands of her fiancé.

Alexis: What is the theme for your story, Tidewater Summer?

Jo: Tidewater Summer is a story of renewal from brokenness.

Alexis: Rose Marie Henley is your story’s heroine. What qualities make people like—and strongly dislike—her? Describe her looks, personality, and heart.

Jo: Rose has brown eyes, she’s a brunette, and is tall and athletic. Her personality is subdued, damaged from the physical abuse she has encountered. Before the abuse, her heart was full of love that she shared with her fiancé, her parents, and longtime best friend.

Alexis: Why is Rose seeking solitude?

Jo: Rose is seeking solitude to escape additional abuse from her former fiancé, and to heal from her wounds.

Alexis: What, in her heart of hearts, does Rose really want?

Jo: When the story begins, Rose wants only to be alone. As the story continues and her character grows, she becomes more receptive to others.

Alexis: Rose was in a romantic relationship with a man who was physically abusive. Why did you make him abusive? What were the challenges of writing those scenes?

Jo: I find visits to beaches have a cleansing effect, a balm for whatever ails you. My premise was to write a story about a woman who visits a beach to get over a traumatic event in her life. The most traumatic event humans usually experience relates to their relationships. Tidewater Summer is the result of my story's premise and imagination.

Alexis: How does Rose’s ex-boyfriend’s abuse impact her life story?

Jo: The abuse Rose experiences fill her with fear, she’s broken and confused. Where romance is concerned, Rose must find a way to deal with the past in order to move on in the future. 

Alexis: Rose’s Great-Aunt Clara opens her beach home to Rose for the summer in North Carolina. What moves Rose to take it? How does staying there benefit her life?

Jo: Rose has fond memories of many family vacations spent at her Aunt Clara’s beach house in South Carolina. It is a stable place of safety. 

Alexis: Frank Sutton is your story’s hero. Why does Rose think he’s “over the top handsome”? Describe his looks, personality, and heart.

Jo: When Rose meets Franklin Sutton, she isn’t looking for another relationship and only regards his physical appearance—blond hair, blue eyes, tall—that she describes as over-the-top handsome. Frank is a patient, godly man, a true Southern gentleman. He senses Rose has been treated badly and is gentle in his approach to her.

Alexis: Despite her attraction to Frank, Rose doesn’t want a man in her life. Why?

Jo: Rose has thankfully escaped marrying her abusive fiancé. Her physical and emotional wounds are raw and she doesn’t want to give another man the opportunity to do to her the same as her former fiancé.

Alexis: Frank is smitten with Rose. What does he see in her that enthralls him?

Jo: Frank senses Rose’s hurt, her victim personality. He wants to protect her, care for her, help her recover. Her brown eyes almost mesmerize him.

Alexis: What does it take for him to win her over?

Jo: Frank must break through her defenses and convince her to open her heart to trust him.

Alexis: What do you want readers to remember most about Tidewater Summer?

Jo: God didn’t create us for self-reliance or isolation. Scripture says, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Those in the New Testament church relied on close friends or brothers and sisters in Christ for support—bearing one another’s burdens! If we share our burdens, our load is not as heavy, and with a lighter load, we know relief.

Alexis: Thanks for the interview, Jo! Would you like to share closing thoughts?

Jo: Alexis, thank you for having me on your blog for a visit.

~*~
Author bio: 

Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author of books, articles, and short stories. 

Novels she has written include her West Virginia Mountains series, her endearing Caney Creek series, and her standalone novel, Tidewater Summer. These are sweet, Southern historical romances. 

Jo is a member of ACFW and the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN). 

Learn more at www.johuddleston.com where you can read first chapters of her novels and novellas and also sign up for her mailing list.

~*~
Book blurb for Tidewater Summer: Will Rose find the solitude she seeks during her island summer or is solitude what she really wants? 

A compelling story of one woman’s pursuit of restoration from physical abuse at the hands of her fiancé. Rose Marie Henley’s Great-Aunt Clara convinces Rose to spend the summer at her South Carolina beach house.

Aunt Clara’s handyman sends his nephew to repair Rose’s water heater. Last year Rose would have been excited to see his over-the-top handsome nephew, Frank Sutton. But now she doesn’t want any man in her life again.

Frank has an instant attraction to Rose. Can he break through her defenses? He’ll do anything to protect her, but will she open her heart to trust him?

~*~
Buy Jo's book on Amazon

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Connect with Jo:

Website and blog (Read novel first chapters here): http://www.johuddleston.com

Sign up for Jo’s mailing list: http://bit.ly/1ZFaZwG

Amazon Author page: http://amzn.to/2cfSroU

Facebook Author page: http://bit.ly/2aqFEeT

Facebook personal page: http://on.fb.me/1Ubic69

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1QAPtFv

Inspirational blog: http://bit.ly/1QAPRnr

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