Soul Scientist

Dear Reader,

I am celebrating YOU during July – my birthday month!

One of my special friends, also named Beth with a birthday two days after mine in July, starts celebrating her birthday in June and continues well into August. She truly delights in birthdays and shares JOY with any and all who will listen. She mentors me in happiness. I hope this post might help you find delight in this day too, even if it isn’t your birthday!

Please know I am grateful for YOU. Your encouragement, support, and prayers are priceless gifts for every day, like an exceptionally perfect birthday gift from a dear friend. Thank you for doing for me what you do for so many in your lives in being good friends, every single day. You live what Scripture tells us to do in Proverbs 17:17a ERV “A friend loves you all the time” and John 15:13 GNT “The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them.”

Thank God for YOU!

And if you are carrying the hard gift of loving friends who don’t choose to love Jesus today, please know you are not alone. No friend, no one can ever go past the great love Jesus has for every one, including those who don’t call Him friend. Jesus sees your friend and you in your pain. Jesus loves your friend just as much as He loves you. And that truth never changes, nor does Jesus!

Keep praying, keep loving, keep being a friend – Jesus knows their pain and yours, too. Hold hard to this truth found in John 3:16 MSG “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.”

Look forward to celebrating the best birthday ever – when your friend chooses to receive Jesus’ love for her. That’s the kind of birthday gift that should be celebrated all year, year after year, and the kind of birthday gift that always brings joy and delight!

gratefully,

Beth

written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D. and birthday girl, 2023.