Thinking about okra can help restore your faith in people:

I don’t like boiled okra. I won’t eat boiled okra. Boiled okra is way too slippery and slimy for me!

Fried okra is a different story. Cornmeal-rolled, crispy, and piping hot out of the skillet — fried okra is wonderful!

Both ways of preparing okra use the same green pod, but two different processes. One puts me off, the other I crave.

Okra’s a lot like people. We often write a person off because they slip and slide and leave behind a slimy first impression. We don’t take the time to truly get to know them heart-to-heart — to see how God is working in their life.

We tend to evaluate people by their slime, not by what God can cook up in and through them. We see them struggling in their slime — in addiction, in anger, in bitterness, in depression, in brokenness. Then we assume that is who they really are.

If a cook can take slimy okra and make it delicious with a little heat and cornmeal, what can God do with a human heart? Before you reject okra, fry it! Before you reject human beings, ask God to show you His plan to change them with the warmth of His Spirit.

Prayer can restore your faith in God:

There’s more to prayer
Than giving God
Your request list
Or crying out
For Him to help
When you’re desperate.
Prayer is about
Learning to hear
And to obey
God’s inner voice.
It’s inner peace,
A joy fest
Of holy rest
That flows from an
Openhearted
Relationship
With your Maker.
To truly pray
Let your heart stay
Aware of God
Throughout each day.