He is for us, not against us

I have been so anxious to write this entry, but have been waiting just in case the hubby would like to do it instead. I guess we can both do it in our own way because we won't be writing the exact same thing. So, here goes.

Last year was a bit of a financial struggle. We always were able to pay our bills, but most of the time we were paying them late because, well, we were waiting for provision. It was very frustrating because we've been doing all the things that we feel are "necessary" to receive God's blessings. We even had a couple people try to convince us that the economy isn't doing well, so my hubby's work may suffer. You may have to get jobs outside the home. I just have one thing to say about that: the world's economy may not be doing well, but God's economy is not dictated by the world's economy. God provides for His people, and I am not supposed to worry about it. (Definitely the hard part sometimes.)

Since our budget was a bit tight, we made "cuts" for Christmas. I felt bad doing it at the time, but grateful that the Lord was working on pride in my life so that I would do the right thing for my family. From hubby for Christmas, I received a journal. I was very excited because I love to journal (and I really prefer the fancy journals compared to a regular notebook because then I can find it easier. I'm very disorganized sometimes, but that's another post. :)

As I'm sitting in bed one night with my new journal, I was contemplating what to put in it. (I'm also very indecisive, but that's also another entry--maybe.) I heard the Lord tell me that I was supposed to use it to document all the ways that He is going to bless us this year. I thought to myself (and to Him), "Lord, how about if I get a 5-subject notebook, and I'll give you a section?" That was pretty generous of me I thought since last year didn't feel like it was overflowing with blessings. Even hubby said that he didn't think that I would need to use the whole journal for blessings. Then I distinctly heard the Lord say, "No, I want you to use this journal to write down all the ways that I will bless you this year". That was it. Here was my chance to practice what I preach to my children all the time: obedience.

Just a quick note that occurred to and encouraged Hubby & I: in the Bible (Deut. 6) , God instructs His people to pass things that God has done on to our children, and our childrens' children. I always thought that was for the "children of old", but have realized that this is not totally accurate thinking. We need to show our children and our grandchildren, etc. what the Lord has done in our lives to encourage them as well as us (and others!).

Since choosing obedience, the Lord has been blessing us beyond comprehension. First was providing enough paint for us to paint our entire hall upstairs (which is pretty big). And it looks as though He's planning on continuing this trend. We've had more people letting us know that they have paint that we can have so that we can continue our painting fun with the rest of the hall (which stretches down the stairs, and then all downstairs as well). Good-bye pistachio green, I feel myself beginning to relax already!! To see what I'm talking about, here's a link to hubby's blog.

I've grown very claustrophobic about clutter. Our house is very cluttered (or at least it was). One room that caused me to panic was our family room. Wall to wall was covered with something (mostly furniture). We had an L-shaped desk that took up so much room (and was not functional) that I asked God to help us find a desk that would take up less room (and be functional). Well, I put an ad on Craigslist for $75 obo. I knew that our desk wasn't worth that much (to us), but you can always go down in price, not up. Then we waited for almost 3 weeks. We'd had several inquiries about it, but nothing panned out.

In the meantime, I found a desk that looked beautiful (online) and they were asking $75 for it. I asked the Lord that if it was His will, please make it happen. Well, 2 days later, someone came over to look at the desk (while I was at work). The guy told my hubby that "it's perfect. I'll take it". He then threw some money on the table, took the desk and left. Hubby didn't count the money until after he left (again, another entry...why does he do things like this?!?). Much to our astonishment, he left us $75--with no negotiations!! To make this long story short, we now have our desk, which is more beautiful than was in the pictures. To God be the Glory!!

Here is a picture of our old desk. Not very workable, or usable.



Even though it was an L-shaped workstation, there was no storage and the desk top was pretty unusable.





And this is the new desk the Lord gave to us.




There is enough room on this desk to accommodate our household tasks like bills, our homeschooling records, and my hubby's work.




We have good friends who gave us a dining room table (which extends for our growing family) which is also beautiful and a surround-sound system (it's so awesome and we never knew we even wanted one, and makes us laugh when we listen to it while watching our 19-inch t.v.). It's kind of like being in the theater while sitting waaaayyy in the back. :)

Just recently the Lord has been pouring down blessings for us financially. I had a friend who asked me to come over to her house because she had something for me. When I got there, she handed me an envelope and said that "this is from someone at church. They wanted to remain anonymous, but wanted to bless you and your hubby". I looked inside and there was $400! I couldn't believe my eyes and said, "are you serious?" She simply replied, "yeah". I brought it home to hubby and for once even he looked surprised. We ran right to the bank to make a large part of our mortgage payment (that was overdue).

The very next day, we received a call from a friend of ours. He said that he had been spending time with the Lord and for the past few weeks He felt the Lord putting us on his heart. He said that he was going to step out in faith and ask me, "do you need any help financially?" I felt my jaw drop. Pinch me and I'll wake up, I thought to myself. I said yes we do need help. He said that he felt the Lord giving the number 200 to him in his heart and that was what he wanted to bless us with. I felt so bad that hubby didn't take this call. He wouldn't have started to cry like I was doing at that very moment. I couldn't believe that He (God) was doing this for us.

Needless to say, we've been praying for HUGE blessings to rain down on these people (from paint to sound systems to financial help and everything in between) who've stepped out in faith. We've learned that it's good to walk in faith even when it looks so incredibly stupid to others . That we're trusting our God and leaning NOT on our own understanding(Proverbs 3:5) . I don't know why the Lord decided to bless us in this way. But I do know that He's just a loving Papa who loves to bless His children. And I love Him for His blessings, but mostly for His amazing sacrifice that He gave us so long ago. I pray that that very sacrifice will remain fresh in my heart, and that I will never take Him for granted, and that I will always walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:1-10). He is for us, not against us (Romans 8:31-39).