Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled Search My Heart God was written by Jasmine Go.

To reduce food waste, a supermarket chain in Singapore sells slightly blemished fruits and vegetables at lower prices.

In one year, this initiative saved more than 850 tons, or 771,000 kilograms of produce

that previously would have been thrown out for not meeting aesthetic standards.

Shoppers soon learned that outward appearances,

scars, and quirky shapes don't affect flavor and nutritional value. What's on the outside doesn't always determine what's on the inside. In 1 Samuel 16, the prophet Samuel learned a similar lesson when he was sent by God to anoint the next king of Israel.

When he saw Eliab, the firstborn son of Jesse, Samuel thought he was the chosen one.

But God said, do not consider his appearance or his height.

People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord

looks at the heart. Out of Jesse's eight sons, God chose the youngest, David, who was tending his

father's sheep to be the next king. God is more concerned with our hearts than with outward

credentials, the school we attended, what we earn, or how much we volunteer.

Jesus taught his disciples to focus on purifying their hearts of selfish and evil thoughts, saying what comes out of a person is what defiles them.

Just as Samuel learned not to consider outward appearances, may we,

with God's help, examine our hearts, our thoughts and intentions in all that we do.

Today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is from 1 Samuel chapter 16 verses 4 through 12.

Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him.

They asked, do you come in peace? Samuel replied, yes, in peace I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.

Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me. Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons

and invited them to the sacrifice. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought surely the

Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord.

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