Well, I just finished my paint project. Now that Richard has employment (!) I splurged on a couple of gallons of paint and began to tackle the dreadfully off-white walls in our kitchen, living room and hallway. They're now more tan-ish. Well, Valspar's "baked scone" in eggshell finish to be exact. I did all that I could without branching over to the vaulted ceiling and stairwell. Something about me up on scaffolding to reach a 15 foot ceiling while currently without health insurance seemed a bit unwise!
While I was finishing up tonight with the painting, I popped in a cd that I received in the mail this week from Aunt Karen. It was of a recent Sunday morning sermon by Pastor Mike Hughes at Riverside Fellowship Church in Florida. It was amazing to me how many points he made that echoed the spiritual lessons that I have been learning this past month. Well, of course it did, that's why she sent it to me! Contentment (being satisfied in whatever state I find myself), humility (ability to accept God's provision through other people), trust (believing that God really does know my situation, that He cares and that He's working on it and in it)!
Looking back over the past several weeks, I can say without question that I felt the hand of God in tangible ways like I never have before. The outpouring of His provision during this time of unemployment was amazing. We had no need that went unmet. We had gifts for groceries, dinner out, babysitting, house payments, doctor visits and medicine (for chicken pox) and more! Richard even scored a random one-day job at the mall that brought in some extra cash. Next time you're in the Battlefield Mall in Springfield, MO, visit Yankee Candle and listen closely to the music. My talented hubby set up the sound system!
One particularly timely provision was that we had previously decided to send Carson to private school next year for Kindergarten. We needed to pay our deposit to confirm his spot. Within three days before it was due, we received cash from more than one source that we were not expecting all totaling the exact amount of the deposit!
I do have to say that this week, we really did begin to feel we were living a tiny slice of Job (from the Bible). Thankfully all of our family is still among the living and we have no livestock to lose in the first place, but we had pretty much been rocked to the core with other losses. We had watched door after door close regarding jobs. One particularly difficult one closed this week....I literally grieved over it. We had put so much hope in this one possibility. When the door closed, we really thought we had no more hope for finding work in Springfield and that we would have to look at moving. That blow hit us just as Richard got the c. pox (a.k.a. Job's scaly boils). It really is kinda funny now because the very next day after this total loss of all hope is when the new job offer came through!
You really should see Richard...he's quite a sight with all these spots! Even the kids are chiming in with Job-wisdom...they've been learning at church about being a good friend. When we made a reference to Daddy being like Job, Avery was quick to point out that we needed to "be nice to Daddy because Job's friends weren't very nice to him!" Thankfully though, unlike Job, Richard is not sitting in a pile of ashes scraping his sores with a broken piece of a pot. Niether is his wife telling him to "curse God and die." We much prefer to adopt Job's chosen posture toward God in the midst of his many, many trials. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!" (Job. 13:15).
As I told a friend earlier this week, I'd rather be in the gut-wrenching trials of life with my God than to be anywhere else without Him.
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