Hey friends. Diving in...
Provision & Sacrifice. As I woke up after a long awaited and most delightful good nights rest this week, those specific words were pounding in my head. I literally could not and still as I type this cannot get these words to stop repeating throughout my days. So, here goes to spirit & truth. I sure hope you can take it.
In the 17+ years of my amazing and adventurous marriage to B, one thing has never changed and that is to be a stay at home mom. As the kiddos are both in school now, I guess my official worldly verbiage is now a homemaker. We have always seen eye to eye as God's spirit spoke to me many moons ago and told me where to be daily and B has always agreed.
Now, let's just clear the air and say that in NO way have we ever had a substantial amount income. We have made several mistakes, had many tears, fought spiritual warfare, had doubt, fear, heartaches, and sadly the selling of B's cherry red Peavey electric guitar only to pay our electricity bill after it had already been shut off with a newborn coo-ing at home. Never did B even whine for doing that. SelfLESS. I love him.
After several years of being a believer in Christ, my journey in serving, trusting, following, and solely relying on Him really never got started until a couple of years after our wedding. How, in all of my life of being in the church each time the door opened, being a good kid growing up, or saying and doing the right things most of the time have I missed out on seeking God on a daily basis plus giving Him every part of me and relying only on His strength as I do today? This is still a reminder to do so often even now. The answers are, to me at least, provision & sacrifice.
Sacrifice---
God has seen our daily sacrifices through the personal struggles we have encountered throughout history. Maybe one of which and is the biggest struggle for us are finances. Two, denying the WANT for worldly things, or to NOT go buy something just because it's the latest and greatest or because we think we deserve it. It's simple really. We do not NEED any one thing other than Him. He is all we need. It IS enough.
Side note - I'm never a fan of the phrase, "I worked hard, so I deserve it." The truth in that is that God chose to bless you, so give Him the Glory he deserves, not you. You'll find that you enjoy those moments more passionately and find it is much more meaningful when you don't point your finger at yourself for your glory.
Provision---
I told you about our many years of struggles financially while we are living out His will for me to be at home because of this. Never have I looked at our checking account balances and said, "man, we have so much in there that I don't even know how to act." No, that's not ever been the case. Hear me out. My marriage to B, as crazy as we are, continues to be a Godly one even during our most idiotic moments. Have we gotten sidetracked? Yep. We have messed up in so many areas but have always given God the Glory for providing us a healthy marriage and that God has forgiven us in each failure after failure and never left our side. Our incredible kids and our health are never taken for granted. God's provision has always been seen to us as what we have right here, right now and it's never been what's in a checking account nor will it ever be. See, He's our provider in every area, not just in our finances. As our pastor has said, "we are so Rich." Speaking about life in general and not of meaningless things. We are rich through Him. That's enough!
Another side note - if you do have more money than you know what to do in your checking/saving accounts, I am more than happy for you and trust that you are doing good works with it! Go God!
So, hopefully my heart will not implode now that I've gotten to express myself on here. I pray that my excitement that He has given me through this lesson never ceases. I do not ever want to overlook how God continues to provide for me or how he is blessed by the small sacrifices I make in being closer to Him. After all....He gave the ultimate sacrifice. It's time to do our part for Him.
-Mel
