First of all, two friends who had lost jobs, found new ones! We prayed and prayed for this and are so very thankful to the Lord. Mark and I understand what they went through... we empathize with every person we hear about who have entered this little "club" that no one wants to belong to, and I pray fiercely for them. One of these families had endured a two year long job search, and the other only a few days. You never know what God will ask of you. It goes to show that everyone's story will be different. If you compare our story with each of the above, they are all decidedly different. There are no cookie-cutter Christians. God has differing and beautiful plans for each of our lives.
When we encounter a trial:
- God may choose to deliver us from the fire, which builds our faith.
- God may choose to deliver us through the fire, which refines our faith. (1 Peter 1:6-7)
- God may choose to deliver us by the fire into His arms, which perfects our faith. (Hebrews 12 1-2)
Now, on to report more of God's goodness.... God's people are the most amazing of His creation.... :-)
- A card came in the mail with a gift for school supplies and a few days later it was followed by a small package.... the movie "Facing the Giants" was inside with a note saying that they thought we needed our own copy. How incredibly thoughtful! I know I will watch this again and again because God has used it for great encouragement when I've been down
- Every week, I deliver bread to a family in need. This family has been blessing us back with their excess produce.
- Someone else shared some delicious cheese and several other goodies with us.
- Wonderful people from church gave us a bunch of baby clothes and things their daughter had outgrown, for our soon-coming granddaughter. I feel bad that we cannot do more to help prepare for this precious little one's arrival... so it was a very sweet feeling to have something to give to my son and daughter-in-love to help out.
- Some ladies at church hosted a baby shower for our daughter-in-love.... it really helped to fill in those final items that were needed.
- I mentioned my birthday a few posts ago... but I don't think I mentioned that I had the nicest gifts in the world. First some money gifts from our parents and grandparents -- I got something I wanted (to help me keep positive thoughts) and then something I needed... actually my daughter and I both needed shoes, so I got some for each of us. Mark was at his parents the week of my birthday and so my mother-in-law sent a birthday cake she made and comfy pajamas (which I also needed!) with Mark when he came home. The kids all had extremely thoughtful gifts for me, too. It was a blessed day.
- We thought we didn't have dental insurance, but one day I noticed our insurance card still said "dental" on the front. We checked into it and we do still have coverage, at least until our COBRA runs out. Great timing, because our daughter needs to have her wisdom teeth out. However... remember the problem we were having with her congenitally missing tooth? Well, the problem has grown into an extremely complicated and expensive one. Please mention this to the Lord in your prayers. We have no idea how this could possibly work out! But, God surely has a way and we need to have His guidance in it.
- Mark has gotten a little bit of business, but it is still very far from where it needs to be. He's spent his time doing lots of marketing, improving our Internet presence, taking courses for more certifications, writing a Continuing Ed class for the Board of Realtors, etc. But the fruit is still slow in coming. The housing market is sluggish, so that is a major ingredient. Mark is terrific at doing the inspections and the Lord opened this door... so I have no doubt that this will work out eventually. But, there are difficult decisions to make while waiting for business to come and this is heavy on my heart. Please pray about this if you think of us from time to time. God needs to clearly direct in this situation.
Psalm 126:4-7 (The Message)
And now, God, do it again—
bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
will shout hurrahs at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.
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