Comfort for the soul

John 14:27 (ESV)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Ice cream has to be one of the best foods on the planet. It tastes so good. It doesn’t matter what flavor (accept for coffee) or what topping you put on it, ice cream just tastes amazing.

Ice cream is used a lot too as a comfort food. If you’ve had a bad day at school or work you can rush home and find comfort by eating a bowl or two of ice cream. Ice cream really comes in handy when you need a little bit of comfort during a difficult time.

Just like ice cream is an awesome comfort food, the Bible can bring us comfort when we are facing difficulty. The Bible tells us that Jesus gives us peace.

Jesus gives us peace. Just like ice cream can bring us comfort when we’re upset, Jesus can bring us peace too. When tough times come, we can look to Jesus. He tells us we don’t have to be troubled or afraid. Jesus has not left us helpless and alone. We’ve got Him to walk life together with us.

So in the midst of tough times remember that you can look to Jesus for peace.  Remember that He told you that He left us peace. We don’t have to live our lives afraid of what might happen. We can look to Jesus for peace and find comfort in Him!

Dear Lord, first we want to thank You for Ice Cream but more importantly we thank You for the comfort that You bring. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Reminders in a Butterfly

Luke 12:6-7 (New International Version)



6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.


As she ran errands with her children one spring day, Kaylyn Dunne was thinking about this. She had just returned from a weekend retreat that used the butterfly as its theme. The retreat had aroused her desire for a deeper spiritual life, yet worried her too, because she had been asked to be chairperson of the next retreat. Kaylyn had never been chairperson of anything, and she felt quite inadequate. With her already crowded schedule and a chronically ill son to care for, was God really calling her to do this? She needed a sign.



"Mom, look!" her son suddenly exclaimed from the back seat. Kaylyn almost hit the brakes. Fluttering in front of her, inside the car, was a huge monarch butterfly. It was a vivid yellow, her favorite color. With the car moving at 45 miles per hour and the windows open barely a crack, how had it gotten in?



The winged visitor quivered around delicately, then landed like a little puff on the dashboard. Awed, the children stared at it. "It must be frightened," Kaylyn told them. "Open the windows, and let it fly out." They did, but despite the breeze, the butterfly stayed. Kaylyn pulled into the library parking lot. "Let's leave the windows down while we're gone," she suggested. But when they returned to the car, the monarch was still sitting on the dashboard, as if awaiting them.



Bemused, Kaylyn finished the errands, drove home, opened the car doors, went into the house with her enthralled children, and waited. Eventually the butterfly leisurely emerged, circled the house in a kind of embrace, and flew off. "I got to thinking of the timeliness of its arrival, right after I had prayed," Kaylyn says. Did God intend it as a sign that He was near? That He had plans for her to move more fully into life, to shed her cocoon and spread her wings? Kaylyn accepted the chairperson job, and it became her path to a richer spiritual life. Since that day, butterflies seem to visit Kaylyn often, especially when she needs encouragement. One of the best encounters came when a friend held a prayer service in her living room for Kaylyn's son. One of the group pointed to the front window and exclaimed, "Look outside!" Everyone did. Tapping gently against the glass was a brown butterfly. Just a coincidence? Perhaps. But it came in the middle of a snowstorm.



Flowers, rainbows, butterflies. Nature’s tender treasures. Perhaps God uses them to bridge the barriers between heaven and earth, to let us know that as He watches the sparrow He surely watches us.






Dear Lord we thank You for caring for us. We thank You for the examples that you leave for us in the Bible to give us comfort when we need it most. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Comfort, pass it on

We are comforted because we are heartbroken. We are comforted because we need a blessing. We are comforted because God loves us. We are comforted to comfort others. While each of the above statements is true, the last is the most crucial one. There is something about comfort that cannot be fully realized until it is shared with someone else. It is that final step in the healing process of grief, disappointment, hurt, and loss. We need to share the comfort we have received, to help those we come into contact with. Comfort, pass it on!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
— 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Dear Lord, thank you for knowing our hearts, caring about our concerns, and comforting us when we are wounded. Help us to share your grace, mercy, and comfort with someone else today. In Jesus' name Amen.