yes... thats right... two posts in two days.... with a broken arm no less!!
the end is near...
recently a friend was telling a group of friends of some financial struggles he and his wife were going through. as i listened, i couldnt help but remember when christi and i were in a tight place financially last summer when i was without a job.
while i was jobless, we were really low, and by low, i mean almost completely out,of cash.
we had run out of trashbags, so while we were getting groceries, we went to the aisle with the trashbags. when we saw the prices, we actually started calculating which would be the better deal-number of bags per dollar, to see how long we could make it with the least amount of bags. or how long we could go on a bigger box, and not have to buy more for a long time.
the box we got ended up being around$6.
when we got home, they were the wrong size.
christi just burst into tears that we had spent that much on trash bags that were too small and we werent even able to get all of the groceries we wanted. i remember standing there feeling helpless, that i had been trying to find a job with no luck, trying to force the trashbags that were too small into the can, and wondering if i was failing as a husband.
that was back during this past summer. we just recently made it to the end of that box of bags and it made me smile, because the lord has brought us this far, and something as simple as trashbags that were too small reminded me of how graciously he provides.
our world didnt end because the bags were too small. the ironic thing was, we still had things to throw away, so we were obviously better off than a lot of people in the world.
the lord isnt gracious simply because we dont have to calcuate cost per trashbag these days, he is gracious anyway. but in this instance, more than the job he eventually provided for me, and the wonderful job christi has, along with the blessings of having wonderful families and friends who help us along the way, is his faithfulness and graciousness in reminding me of the reality of how he provides when i look at an empty box of trashbags.
-stephen
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3 comments:
How amazing the things He uses to remind us to rely on Him. Several years ago, when our children were young...money was very tight at our place, too. We had purchased a home and became the benfactors of a leak in the master bedroom ceiling...right over the bed. There was no immediate money for repairs (due to the fact we had already had the roof repaired on two separate occassions),so we improvised by stapling trash bags to the ceiling. We checked them and drained them when needed (there were a few times we forgot and a sudden gush of cold water falling on you while sleeping was an excellent reminder to check on them). His gift of humor and an understanding between husband and wife that this was really a small thing helped us through the dry and the not so dry times. He is so faithful; He has always met our needs and has shown Himself faithful in many ways. God Bless.
Amen. I dont know which is harder though. Going through those hard times, or watching some one you care about go through them.
Sometimes I think that it is the hardest when we have to go through difficult situations while watching people we love go through equally difficult situations.
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