Thanks for joining us for today's devotional reading from Our Daily Bread.

Today's encouragement was written by Anne Cetus, and she titled it, Bending Low.

A young mom followed behind her daughter, who peddled her tiny bike as fast as her little legs could go.

But picking up more speed than she wanted, the little girl suddenly rolled off the bike and cried that her ankle hurt.

Her mom quietly got down on her knees, bent down low, and kissed it to make the pain go away.

And it worked. The little girl jumped up,

climbed back on her bike, and peddled on. Don't you wish all our pains could go away that easily?

The Apostle Paul experienced the comfort of God in his continual struggles, yet kept going.

He listed some of those trials in 2 Corinthians Chapter 11, verses 23 through 29, floggings, beatings, stonings, sleep deprivation, hunger,

concerns for all the churches. He learned intimately that God is the father of compassion and the God

of all comfort, or as another version translates it, he is the father who gives tender love.

Much like a mom comforting her child, God bends down low to tenderly care for us in our pain.

God's loving ways of comforting us are many and varied.

He may give us a scripture verse that encourages us to continue on,

or he may have someone send a special note or prompt a friend to give us a call that touches our

spirit. While the struggle may not go away, because God bends down low to help us, we can get up

and pedal on.

Today's Our Daily Read Devotional Scripture reading is from 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 11.

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 receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the

sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed,

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