October 31, 2022

Imitating

Devotion for the Week...

I often call the childcare littles by various endearments. Boys are usually Mister Man or Buster and girls are often Chickie or Missy Moo. I hadn't realized just how often I do this until recently.  Rebecca just turned 2 and she's always here a bit earlier than Nora. She gets very excited when Nora arrives in the morning and has started greeting her by yelling a very enthusiastic, "Hello, Missy Moo!" Well, it's not nearly that clear, but you can tell what she's trying to say, lol.

If you've spent any time at all around toddlers, you know that you have to watch what you say because they will repeat everything, especially anything that slips out that you don't want them to hear! Of course, it's not only our words that they repeat. They also imitate everything they see us do and the more regularly we do something, the more likely they will pick up on it. Whether it's pretending to talk on their phone, doing 'homework' at the table with paper and crayons like their older siblings or copying the exercises they see us doing, toddlers are born copycats.

This makes perfect sense, since toddlers are beginning the slow process of learning how to be functioning members of society and we are the models God has given to them. They imitate us to try on various behaviors and learn how to act in different situations. As adults spending time around littles, it's a humbling thought, isn't it?

But what about us adults? The littles in our company don't realize that we don't have everything all figured out, but we sure know it. We're still learning how to behave in different situations, too. Not only that, but sometimes we're trying to behave better in situations that bring out reactions that are less than our best. Fortunately, we have models to follow, too.

Paul understood this and wrote to the Corinthians, "And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). Paul had spent time living among the Corinthians. They had watched how he lived, how he talked, how he dealt with frustrations and with other people and with himself. They could draw on those memories to figure out how to behave themselves. What people have been part of our lives that we can use as models for our actions and for our words? How did they face frustrations or challenges? How did they react when other people received bad news? Or when others received good news? Imitating people with godly character will help us become more godly ourselves.
How are we practicing imitating Jesus | DevotedQuilter.com
Even more than imitating godly people, though, we can imitate God Himself. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:1-2, "Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ." We won't always get it right, but the more we practice imitating Jesus, the closer we'll get to His character. It's like Rebecca's "Hello, Missy Moo" - the first time she said it, it was so garbled I could hardly pick it out, but as she practices, her words are getting clearer and soon everyone will know what she's saying.

How are we practicing imitating Jesus?

October 24, 2022

Considerate

Devotion for the Week...

I walk almost every day with the kids I babysit. As long as the weather cooperates, we walk for about an hour in the morning. It's the only thing that keeps me sane most days! During one walk last week, we stopped in to the grocery store for a couple of things. I was pushing the 1 year old in the stroller and the two 4 year olds were walking behind me. There were two ladies chatting in the aisle and as we went past, the two 4 years olds said, with great enthusiasm, "Gooood moooorning!" which absolutely charmed the ladies, of course. One of the ladies said, "They're such lovely children," to which one 4 year old responded, "Yes, we are!" You can imagine the laughter that followed that!

Adults are always charmed by little kids that use their manners, whether that's saying good morning to someone or remembering to say please and thank you. Really, there's not much that's cuter than hearing an unprompted 'tank ou' from a 1 year old! 

The thing is, those manners don't become less valuable as we get older, we just stop noticing them because they're expected. In adults, we don't notice when someone has good manners, we notice when they don't! 

In Philippians 4:5, in the midst of a series of instructions for how to live, Paul wrote, "Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do." The Bible is very good at giving us commands that lack wiggle room, isn't it? Did you notice the two words that take away all of our wiggle room? Let's look at it again: "Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do." It's really hard to get around words like everyone and all

Everyone includes the people we like, and the people we don't. It includes the people who treat us kindly, and the ones who don't. It includes the people who share our political views, our religion and our culture, and it includes the ones who share none of those. It includes the people who grate on every last nerve we've got and the ones who ignore us completely. It also includes the people who don't have the capacity to understand what is going on around them, whether because they're too young or because of dementia or disability. Everyone includes...everyone.

And 'in all you do' includes every single task and interaction that makes up our days. Waiting in the long line at the grocery store, dealing with the annoying customer, client or family member, putting up with delays and frustrations, even reading social media posts we don't agree with. I know you could make up your own list of things you have to do that you'd rather not be doing. Our consideration for others extends to those situations, too.

It's easy to be considerate when we're around people we like and who treat us well. It's a lot harder when the people around us are challenging. Likewise, it's easier in situations where we're doing what we want to do and things are going our way and harder when the circumstances are less than ideal.
Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do | DevotedQuilter.com
"Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do." I still have plenty of work to do before I get to that level! I'm remembering what the lady at the grocery store said about the kids, though, and striving to earn the same kind of description. I'd be good with being called "such a lovely person."

October 22, 2022

How to Plan Your Temperature Quilt

Are you thinking about making a temperature quilt? I made one in 2020...well, okay, my temperature quilt represents 2020, but it wasn't actually finished until almost the end of 2021.  Even though it took me much longer than I thought it would, it was a lot of fun to make and I'm really glad I decided to go for it. Even more, I love how it turned out and plan to soon hang it up in my new sewing room.
How to plan your temperature quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
Since we're nearing the start of another new year, I have a few tips to share if you're thinking about diving in to make your own temperature quilt. And, I have a free workbook you can download to help you keep track of everything you decide. 
How to Plan Your Temperature Quilt | DevotedQuilter.com
Enter your email address here to have the workbook sent to your inbox.


Data source


First things first, where will you get the daily temperature information you're going to use? Look for government agencies or weather apps or websites that show historical weather (meaning just weather before today, lol, not necessarily from what we'd consider History). This is important so you can check to see what the high temperature actually was yesterday and so you don't have to worry if you forget to check for a day or two while on vacation or if you fall behind - you can just go back and look it up. Also, I recommend you have a backup plan for getting the temperature. I used Environment Canada for my temperatures, but there were a few days throughout the year when some kind of glitch happened that meant the temperature wasn't listed and I had to use a second source.
How to plan your temperature quilt | DevotedQuilter.com

Which temperatures and which shape?

These next two decisions kind of go hand-in-hand. Will you track both the high and low temperature for each day or only one of them? And, what shape will you use to display the temperatures? Some shapes, like HSTs and flying geese, naturally lend themselves to tracking two daily temperatures, though they could certainly be used with a background fabric instead if you want to track only one temperature. Other shapes, like the circles I used, are only one fabric, so they work better for tracking one temperature (the high, in my case). I've seen people use hexagons to track the daily high temperature, and I've also seen half-hexagons used to track both. All of that to say, choosing what to track and what shape to stitch are both entirely personal decisions and there's no right or wrong answer. 

Another part of choosing which shape to use is how they will be stitched. By machine or by hand? If by machine, is your machine always set up for piecing? Or do you sometimes switch it over to machine quilt something that will take a while to finish and it would be a pain to have to constantly switch back and forth to stitch your temperature blocks? Or are you okay with making the blocks in batches, once the machine is set up for piecing again? In my case, I decided to go with hand appliqued circles because my free motion quilting can often take a week or more for a quilt, so I didn't want to fall that far behind on my blocks, since I intended to make a block a day (for the day before). The joke was on me, though, since I fell way, way, waaaay behind and didn't actually finish making my 2020 blocks until the fall of 2021. Good thing I could go back and look up what those high temperatures had been!
Planning your temperature quilt | DevotedQuilter.com

What size for the blocks?


Once you know what shape you'll be using, it's time to figure out what size the blocks should be. Keep in mind, there will be 365 of them, so you probably don't want to go too big! Start by thinking about how big you want the finished quilt to be, just in general terms. Do you want a throw size? A baby quilt? A wallhanging? Each one will require a different size for the blocks. Graph paper would be a great way to help you visualize how the finished quilt would look with different size blocks.

I knew I didn't want my temperature quilt to be big, so I decided my blocks would finish at 1 ½". When you're planning what size to cut your blocks, don't forget to account for the seam allowances! My blocks are arranged in a 19 x 20 layout, which gave me a 28 ½" x 30" quilt center. That layout also left me with some leftover blocks, which I distributed so one was at the start of each month and two were at the end. I embroidered the initial for each month and the year on those leftover blocks.
Planning your temperature quilt | DevotedQuilter.com

How many fabrics?

How many fabrics will you need? This is going to be determined by two factors: the variation in temperature over the course of a year (just how low and how high do your temperatures go?) and how many degrees each fabric will represent. Here in Newfoundland in 2020 our daily high temperatures ranged from - 15°C to 29°C. I had each fabric represent 3 degrees, except for the fabric that only represented 0°C, which means I used a total of 16 fabrics. 

Which colours?

Now the most exciting part! Which colours will you use? Keep in mind that the colours you choose for the temperatures in the middle of the year will be more prominent in the finished quilt than the ones for the temperatures in January or December. When I was planning my quilt, a lot of the ones I looked at used a colour range from blue-green-yellow-orange-red. That meant the middles of the quilts had a lot of yellow and orange, which really didn't appeal to me. I much preferred the ones with a blue-purple-pink-red progression, so that's what I went with.

In hindsight, I could have done a better job arranging the fabrics into the gradient. There are a couple that are not quite right and should have been moved to slightly cooler temperatures to make the gradient flow better. I would caution you to take your time here and make sure you get that nice flow between fabrics.
Planning your temperature quilt | DevotedQuilter.com


Sticking with it


A year is a long time to commit to a project! It helps to have a plan for when you'll stitch your blocks. One a day? A week's worth every weekend? A dedicated day now and then to get caught up? In order to stick with it, you have to design the project in a way that fits into your life and the way you like to work. There's no sense in designing something that you won't be able to keep up with or that you won't enjoy. We want this to be fun, after all!

That being said, there will probably be times when the plan goes awry. Life will get in the way no matter how well you design the project because that's just what life does. It's good to go in knowing that disruptions will happen so you don't beat yourself up when something does come up. Then, it's just a matter of deciding if you need to adjust your plan going forward or if it was just a brief disruption that won't impact things once you get caught up.

And if, like me, you end up so far behind schedule that you stop working on it entirely, know that the blocks will be there waiting when you're ready to come back to them. And you can always join me for WIPS-B-GONE to get it finished! WIPS-B-GONE is my annual project finishing challenge, the first of which was exactly what got me to finish my own temperature quilt. Now I'm hosting the challenge for the second time and working through some of my other WIPS.

Have fun!

Make sure your download the How to Plan Your Temperature Quilt worksheet so you can keep track of all of your decisions and your fabric gradient. Whatever shapes and fabrics you decide to use, I hope you have fun planning and stitching your temperature quilt. 

How to Plan Your Temperature Quilt | DevotedQuilter.com

October 20, 2022

TGIFF - A WIPS-B-GONE Finish

Welcome to Thank Goodness It's Finally Finished! That definitely applies to the finish I have to share today...I pieced the top for it back in 2018 and it has just been sitting in a cupboard ever since. But now it is finished!
Crumb pieced HST pillow | DevotedQuilter.com
The front of the cushion is all crazy, crumb pieced HSTs that were bonus HSTs from making my Murrina quilt. That quilt involved crumb piecing blocks and then adding snowball corners to them, so I decided to rescue those triangles that would normally be cut off and thrown out. I use Bonnie Hunter's Triangle Buddy method to make those bonus HSTs a useable size.

I even pieced the HSTs together into the top right away! And then I didn't do anything else with it for 4 years. Sigh.

Last year, during the inaugural WIPS-B-GONE, I tackled and finished two big projects - my 2020 temperature quilt and my dragon cross stitch. This year I don't have any projects that have that same feeling of absolutely-must-finish, but there are many, many projects that have been hanging around for a long time. So, instead of a major project that I work on most days of the challenge, I'm working my way through smaller projects. A big part of why this one languished so long was that I couldn't decide what to do with it. Mini quilt? Cushion cover? Add borders or something else to make it bigger? Finally I just decided to go with a cushion cover and it can live in my sewing room. Once I decided that, it was easy to actually get working on it.

At 14" square, it only took a few minutes to baste and then I was ready for the quilting. I used Aurifil 2260 50 wt and quilted switchbacks in the red/pink, with an exaggerated swoop at the corners to help change direction smoothly.
Crumb pieced HST cushion cover | DevotedQuilter.com
That left the crumb pieced triangles to really puff up. Between the puffed up rows and the quilting, the pillow has fabulous texture!
Crumb pieced HST cushion cover | DevotedQuilter.com
I had enough of the red/pink to use for the envelope back of the pillow. I should have cut the two pieces a little bigger, but for some reason I can never remember how much overlap you need. They just barely overlap in the middle, but they do overlap, so I'm calling it good.
Crumb pieced HST cushion cover | DevotedQuilter.com
I even thought to add a label to one corner!
Crumb pieced HST cushion cover | DevotedQuilter.com
I don't actually have any pillow inserts, so I made my own. I used the same fabric for the insert as for the back of the cushion. I had read that not stitching perfect 90° corners makes for better corners after turning the pillow, so I decided to give it a try. I stopped stitching just a stitch or two more than ¼" away from the edge, then turned and stitched a couple of stitches diagonally across the corner before turning the rest of the way to stitch the next side. 
Crumb pieced HST cushion cover | DevotedQuilter.com
As an aside, if you're thinking that my tension looks off, you're right! I set my tension to 6 when doing fmq, which I had just finished for the front of the cushion cover, and sometimes I forget to set it back to 4 when I switch back to piecing. Oops! Usually I catch it before there is photographic evidence of my mistake, lol.

I trimmed the corner just beyond the stitching and turned the pillow right side out. The corners poked out much nicer than before, when I would stitch the corner at a perfect right angle. I did do the same for the cushion cover, too, but didn't think to take pictures until I was doing the insert.
Crumb pieced HST cushion cover | DevotedQuilter.com
I was going to cut up batting scraps to fill the pillow, but then I found half a pillow I once bought to use for stuffing (I think that was for these pillows I made the child care littles for Christmas), so I used that instead. I thought I might still need some batting scraps to finish it off, but it was exactly the right amount of stuffing to give me a nice, plump cushion. 
Crumb pieced HST cushion | DevotedQuilter.com
So far this is my only finish for WIPS-B-GONE 2022, but I've been making lots of progress on other projects. We still have ⅔ of the challenge left, so if you have a few neglected WIPS sitting in cupboards, closets or boxes you can join in here.

And now it's your turn! What have you finished this week? Link it up below so we can celebrate the finish with you. And be sure to visit some of the other links and celebrate their finishes, too!


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

October 17, 2022

Roots

Near the end of August, I started digging up my strawberry bed. It was almost physically painful to do because I love my strawberries, but the plants haven't been producing as well the past few years, so it's time to replace them. It was also time because no matter how hard I work at keeping it weeded, there were trees coming up between the strawberry plants and I couldn't really dig out the roots without disturbing the strawberries. This is a hazard of living right at the edge of the woods. Not only are the tree roots spreading underground from the woods, but those trees drop a lot of seeds and it's impossible to get rid of them all.

Digging it up was interesting. There was such a variety of roots! There were some, weeds that had only taken root this summer mostly, that were easy to dig up because the roots weren't very thick and they didn't go down very far. There were the strawberry plant roots, which were quite thick and tangled together, so they had to be chopped apart with the edge of the shovel. And then there were those pesky tree roots. Some of them were so thick I had to get Paul to come out and deal with them because I just didn't have the strength.

If you've been reading these devotions for any length of time, you won't be surprised to know that wrestling with those roots made me think of a Bible verse. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says: 

"But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
    with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
    or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
    and they never stop producing fruit."

It makes me wonder, how thick and deep are my spiritual roots? What about yours? Would we be bothered by the heat and drought of the troubles of life? Or would our trust in God be deep and strong enough to sustain us through those times?
How thick and deep are my spiritual roots | DevotedQuilter.com
We can't predict what kinds of trouble we will have in life or when it will come. We do know that hardships will come to everyone; they're just part of life. Whether it's the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, sickness, relationship issues or something else, we will have to deal with stuff. Though we would like to be, none of us are immune to the stuff of life. The question then becomes, how will we deal with it? Will the circumstances be enough to uproot us and make us turn our backs on God? Or will our trust in Him be stronger than the circumstances?

How do we grow those deep, strong roots? God said through Jeremiah that it is by trusting in Him and making Him our hope and our confidence. To me, that sounds like time spent with Him, through Bible reading and prayer. It sounds like leaning on God through the stuff of life, even the little stuff, so that we learn to trust that He can hold us up through it all.

Then, when our trust is in Him, our roots will be strong enough that even through the stuff of life, we'll stay vibrant and fruitful.

October 14, 2022

Sewing Room!

When we bought our house in 2007, Aiden was 5, Zach was 3 and I was pregnant with Nathan. There are four bedrooms in the house; ours, Aiden and Zach shared a room, Nathan got a room and we have a spare room (it has a door to the outside, so we weren't comfortable putting the boys in there, which is why two of them shared a room). There were times we considered turning the spare room into a sewing room, but it's a small room that doesn't have space for much besides the bed, which we couldn't take out because we obviously need it when company comes, so I kept sewing at the kitchen table. The spare room did end up storing a lot of sewing stuff, though!

I said way back in 2007 that when Aiden and Zach went away to university, their room would become my sewing room. Back then that felt like so far into the future as to be almost unimaginable. But suddenly Aiden is in his third year, Zach just started his first year in September and I have a sewing room! I can hardly believe it's real!
Sewing room | DevotedQuilter.com
I have to give so much credit to my husband, Paul. He was the one who first went into the room and started clearing out the abundant 'stuff' that had been left behind and he spent so much time sorting through it all. He and Nathan removed the furniture that I wouldn't be needing. He painted the walls (Coventry Gray from Benjamin Moore). He even cleaned the floor when everything was finished!

There were enough books in their room to stock a small bookstore, including several young adult fantasy series I didn't remember and now want to read. I've had this bookshelf since I was in junior high, I think, or maybe high school, when my grandfather bought it for me to contain my own abundant book collection. The boys certainly come by their love of books honestly! My shoeboxes full of scraps fit nicely on the shelf, though they're really not very pretty. And the rest of the shelf is just a mishmash while I figure out where things are going to go.
Sewing room | DevotedQuilter.com
I've started painting the shoeboxes white, then labeling them. They'll still be random sizes, but I'm hoping this will make them less busy-looking. So far I have one finished 😅
Box for scrap fabric | DevotedQuilter.com
Last night I moved my fabric into the drawers of the two dressers. I've had it in a dresser in the spare room for years, but that dresser was stuffed full and it still didn't hold everything. That dresser has 4 drawers that are slightly larger than these ones, so now with 8 drawers I actually have room to contain it all.
Sewing room | DevotedQuilter.com
The bed is staying, for those times when both boys are home at the same time. Because Aiden is doing a work term until September of 2023, it will probably be a while before they're both able to be here together. If only one is home, like Zach was last weekend for Thanksgiving, he'll sleep in the spare room. But if they're both home, one will need a bed in here. My only concern about that plan is that this is a large horizontal surface with no designated purpose most of the time, and those tend to collect a lot of clutter. I'm going to try to keep it clear, but I make no promises, lol. I should also make a twin size quilt to actually fit it, but this version of Medallion Magic will work for now.

I made sure to have a chair for company! Paul jokes that he may never see me again now that I have my own room, to which I say he's always welcome to come visit! Nathan and Zach both wandered in and sat down briefly while I was sewing over the weekend, which was really nice.
Sewing room | DevotedQuilter.com
The Marbles block is a free tutorial.

There's still plenty to do. I want a design wall behind the ironing board and shelves over the dresser the iron is on. Maybe more shelves in the closet. A cutting table is on the someday list. For now, I put my sewing machine on the floor if I want to cut up here, but that table is a bit low. I'll probably still do most of my cutting in the kitchen. I find cutting at counter height is much easier on my back, especially if I have a lot to cut. Of course, I definitely want quilts hanging on the walls! I think I'll start by hanging my 2020 temperature quilt on the wall behind my sewing machine and I have plenty of other quilts to choose from.
Sewing room | DevotedQuilter.com
These pictures were taken over the course of a few days, so you can see things gradually moving into the room, including the lamp that really helps light up that corner.

And here's the view from my sewing chair. I love watching the leaves dance in the wind!
Sewing room | DevotedQuilter.com
The afternoon that Paul and I moved my sewing machine into the room, I tried to thank him for all he did to make it happen and I could hardly get the words out without crying. It's amazing to finally have my own space. Not needing to put things away every evening so we can eat supper is such a treat and being able to walk in and just start sewing without setting things up first feels so good.

So, any fabulous features of your sewing room that you think I should consider for mine? I'd love to hear your ideas. 

October 10, 2022

Respect and Dignity

Devotion for the Week...

Sometimes when I read the Bible, a particular passage will strike me differently even though I know I've read it before. This past week that happened with 2 Peter 1:5-8, which says, "Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

I read it over a couple of times, all the while thinking, "Christians should be at the forefront of the social justice movement." Now, you might think that's an odd conclusion to draw from the passage, but hear me out!

Moral excellence means doing what is right. 

Godliness means acting as God would act. What would Jesus do, as it were.

Brotherly affection means caring for others as though they were family.

And love for everyone...well, that means exactly what it says. Love. For everyone.

All of these character traits point toward treating other people with respect and dignity. Nowhere does it say the brotherly affection only applies to people who look like us or believe like us or have the same social standing as us or the same language as us or anything else. In fact, Peter goes on to say we should have love for everyone. There's nobody left out when we say 'everyone'.

Then, in verse 8, Peter writes that we become more productive and useful the more we grow in these qualities. What an interesting thought! I feel like Peter is saying that the more these traits grow in our lives, the more our actions will reflect them. And the more our actions reflect these traits, the more useful our knowledge of Jesus becomes.

Christians should be the ones fighting for clean water in every community, regardless of who lives there, because we all need clean water. Christians should be the ones affirming that Black lives matter because they do and society has acted as if they don't for way too long. Christians should be the ones working to address food insecurity, because no child should go hungry.
Are people being treated with dignity and respect? | DevotedQuilter.com
There are so many more issues, but they all hinge on the same thing. Are people being treated with respect and dignity? If the answer is no, what are we doing about it?

October 05, 2022

The Quick Quilts Pattern Bundle

Note - This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Do you love quilts that stitch up quickly? I think all quilters do! Quick quilt patterns are especially good when we want to make a gift or when we just need the rush that comes from finishing something that didn't take a year to make. Well, I'm excited to have my Zoomed In pattern included in a bundle of quick-to-make patterns that is available today.

The Quick Quilts pattern bundle includes 20 patterns that all come together quickly. They're stash friendly, too! The best part is the 20 patterns are only $19 USD! That's not even $1 a pattern!

Get your copy of the Quick Quilts pattern bundle now


Here are all of the patterns that are included:


The pattern bundle is only available for a few days (until October 9th), so act now to get all 20 patterns for only $19 USD.

Buy the Quick Quilts pattern bundle now!


October 03, 2022

You Have to Go When They're Ripe

Devotion for the Week...

The last Wednesday of August, Paul and I went out for a few hours of blueberry picking. That week was incredibly busy. I had a quilt on a tight deadline that I was trying to finish, plus we were leaving that Friday to take Zach to university, so there was all the stuff that needed to be done so he could pack. Laundry, laundry and more laundry, lol.

While we were out in the woods, I kept thinking about all of the things that needed to be done and how it was maybe a little crazy to be out picking berries instead of doing all that other stuff. But then I reminded myself that it's a very narrow window for getting blueberries. First of all, we go back to work soon after they first ripen, which makes it harder to find the time to go, plus this year we were going away for four days to get Zach moved. And, probably more importantly, if you don't go soon after they ripen, then everyone else will beat you to it! So, crazy or not, we went out and picked about 12L or 3 gallons of blueberries before the heat of the day made me call it quits and we headed home.

Picking berries and thinking about how short a time we have to get out there for them, made me think about salvation. (This isn't the first time picking blueberries has inspired a devotion, by the way. You can read the others here, here and here.) Everyone alive today has the opportunity to accept Jesus as their Savior, an opportunity which has been available for over 2,000 years. That may make it feel like this opportunity has always been and will always be, but that's not the case. There will come a day when God will say time is up. Maybe that will be the day we die, or maybe it will be the day Jesus returns. Either way, the time to accept Jesus as Savior will be over.

Unlike with predicting when berries will be ripe, though, we can't predict when that time will be. 

Jesus told a parable about a rich man who had so much he figured he could "sit back and say to [himself], 'My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!' But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’ Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God." (Luke 12:19-21). We can't know how long our lives will be. We like to pretend we will live forever, but we won't, and when that day comes, it will be too late to accept Jesus as Savior.
Someday, the time to accept Jesus as Savior will be over | DevotedQuilter.com
Likewise, we can't know when Jesus will come back. Even Jesus doesn't know! He said, "However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows" (Matthew 24:36). We do know that He will come back and that when He does, it will be too late to accept Him as Savior.

We have to act now, accepting Jesus as our Savior while the time is right. Have you accepted Him as your Savior? If not, I pray you soon will!