The Lord's Hand

After reading a post on Sally Clarkson's blog about the Lord's hand moving in their lives, I felt I needed to do the same. To give God the glory!

Again, I know that many of us are really feeling the crunch right now. And it doesn't look like it will improve any time soon. And God seems to use money a lot in our lives to show us his power and might! I am going to give you a little background of our situation to paint an accurate picture.

My husband works construction and makes the most per hour he will be able to make, so the only way to increase the paycheck is to work more hours. He does what he can, especially since we only have one vehicle. Anytime I have a doctor's appointment for me or one of the kids, it means either him taking off work or me dropping him off and picking him up from work. That can get expensive and thankfully only happens about once a month. One vehicle also means him having to do the shopping on his way home or taking us shopping on the weekends. Now this wouldn't be too big of a deal, because after all, we don't have to pay registration, insurance, repairs, gas, etc for two vehicles. But we drive an old, F-350 Diesel Dually truck. The diesel bill on that right now is about $800 a month! And if you have ever owned a diesel, you know that every part on a diesel cost double of that on a gasoline engine. We love our truck, but it gets pricey from time to time. It costs $50 just to buy the stuff to change the oil! All that to say, that we are scraping by just to keep that diesel on the road, let alone afford another, more economic vehicle. So I have been praying for another vehicle. I am still praying for another vehicle. And I still believe the Lord WILL provide another vehicle! But He hasn't yet. What he has done is just as amazing though . . .

We have lived in our 5th wheel trailer for two years. That was fun and we all enjoyed our time in it. But as the birth of child number four approached we looked for another place to live. Knowing we couldn't afford a rent house and couldn't get a mortgage loan, we shared rent with my husband's cousin. This was right in our price range and the house was big enough for us with a nice yard. Granted - it is an old mobile home, but home none-the-less. But after 4 months, his cousin decided to move out and get married! I am very happy for him, but now we have to pay the full rent! Now we were told that we could work off the rent if we worked on the house. So we did! We got it down to $157 the first month. We can afford that! But the landlord informed us that we could only work off half of the months rent. Oops! So the next month we didn't have much time and we only worked off about $100. That made us real tight and we went four weeks without going grocery shopping!

I finally had to go to the grocery store, but thank God he gave me the desire to shop in bulk! I had enough grain and frozen goods to sustain us through that four weeks! Now going 4 weeks with no fresh stuff was hard, but not impossible. So off I go to the store, but this time I planned a months worth of meals, and was prepared to shop for the next four weeks. I am assuming that we won't have money to go grocery shopping again. But the challenge is that I only have $300 to spend. I spent $297 and have enough food to hold us over for the next month! Praise God!

So as all these struggles are going on, we are still asking God what we should do. When we went from a 5th wheel to this mobile home, we had very little furniture and most of the furniture in this house belonged to his cousin. When the cousin moved out and took his couch he kindly brought us a gently used couch for us! How nice! I thought that was generous, but didn't think much more about it . . . until God provided many more large objects I hadn't been praying for.

Right after the cousin moved out, we desperately needed a tire on the truck. And since the cousin took the washer and dryer, we would like to have had a washing machine. We were doing the laundrymat thing, but that meant I couldn't do cloth diapers until I had my own washing machine. So now we are back to buying disposable diapers and going to the laundymat whenever my husband was home. But before we could go out and buy the tire for the truck (about a $150 tire), God provided 4 free tires for the truck! We only wanted one, but God provided 4!! And if that wasn't enough, God provided a washer and a dryer for free! We only wanted a washer, but God provided both! And because I still didn't quite get the hint God continued to send signals . . .

The next month brought us a refridgerator, lawn mower, lots of canning jars, 3 computers (for the kids), a horse, and a piano. We weren't asking for these things. No one knew I was looking for a cheap computer for the kids school work, but now I have three! No one knew I had been dreaming of a piano for Tinker, but now I have one! The refriderator was needed before hunting season got here. The lawn mower we would have been happy to borrow, but now we own one. And if anyone knows my oldest, a horse is the answer to her dreams. (Now we just need to figure out how to feed it and house it! I'm sure God will take care of that since he provided it!)

So after sitting down and realizing what God was doing I can say "I GET IT!" God will provide for us. It may mean beans and rice for a week . . . or two. It may mean sharing that big ol' truck. It may mean saying no to all the family functions. But we will survive!

I hope this has been encouraging. It has really been neat to see God work through our finances and I wanted to share with you!