God Provides

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." Matthew 6:25-32 NRSV

Today you find me worried about money. I am often worried about money for we live paycheck to paycheck, week to week as many people do. Some weeks are harder than others, and this has been an extremely tight and rough week. I have looked at everything trying to figure out how we would make it to the end of the week. We have money set aside for our first real family vacation in June but I know if I pull from it, that money may never get replaced. Oh, the stresses of being a responsible adult. In my stress, I find comfort in Matthew 6:25-32, because God has proven this to me over and over again. God has always taken care of us either by providing an opportunity or having someone that we can ask for help from. In all honestly sometimes I can get all down and out and poor pitiful me because we have a tiny house (approximately 1200 square feet) whereas some people have much bigger and nicer houses filled with nice things; because we have three vehicles all in need of repair and the youngest six years old; because I would so desparately love to have another child but I know that we could never afford daycare and college for three. And yet again, on those days that I fall into that pit these verses lift me back up. No, we may not have a big house, but we do have a house that protects and shelters us. I love our house, some of it still needs updating and at some point it probably will get to be to small for us, but it is ours and I love it. Yes we have three vehicles that need repair, but they work well enough to get us where we need to go. Another child may or may not be in our future, no matter though God has blessed us with the two most beautiful amazing children. They are our wolrd and I love them more than life itself. I know all of this and this comforts me. And like I said, God has always provided.

I remember I graduated from high school, went on my senior cruise, and when I got back my dad told me I had to get a job. It was Memorial Day weekend and so I made some calls and found an attorney's office in Wetumpka that was looking to hire. I barely put any effort into the entire process. I have now been here nine years this June. I love my job and it is a great one. When I found out that I was pregnant with our second child I cried because I had no idea how we were going to afford the daycare or other many many expenses of raising a child. Shortly thereafter Joe was offered a job in Greenville with the same company. Without that job we would not have been able to pay for Jolie. God again provided by giving us our house. We were living a in trailer that was a little run down and it was not the best to raise children in. God gave us our house, we didn't have to search for it and it was sold to us way below market value. Back in December we found out that the girls' daycare at the time was having to raise their rates, our rate was going to go up $56.00 a week. We could not afford that so I started looking at other daycares. No matter where we went we would have to pay more than what we were paying. Then we found Erica. Erica has been a Godsend and the girls love her. She charges about what we were paying before the rate increase which especially worked out because that is when we found our our house payment was going up. My girls have never gone without. When we could not do something for them someone was there to buy them new Easter dresses, new shoes, or other clothes, to help with Christmas and birthdays, to pay for trips and other activities so that they could experience life to the fullest, and to help pay for pictures so that we have those memories forever. These are just a few of the times that God has provided, but it is enough to remind me how much he loves me and my family and how he will never forsake us.