Category: reflections

From a good old friend:

I can’t think of an adequate title…

As I sit here at the computer, I am looking at my calculator. It says “59.34.” Yep, that’s what I was doing an hour or two ago…balancing our checkbook. And yes, that’s what the balance came up being.
Why am I even telling you this? My pride is telling me to shut up and not talk about what little money we have in the checking account because 1) People may think it’s pretty pathetic, 2) I might be pitied as a charity case or 3) people may think we have spent all of it frivolously. Well, Pride, you’re just gonna have to sit down and shut up for a minute because I have something to say.
For the past several months (since May) we have been having really big financial difficulties. It all started when I had to go to the chiropractor for my headaches. Our insurance deductible hadn’t been met, so every visit, test, therapy, etc. had to be fully paid for by us. That put us far enough in a hole where we had to put our regular bills on credit cards to be able to pay the medical stuff. So, since then it has been kind of like a snowball effect, with even more medical bills for my husband and then even more for my recent surgery. Needless to say, it was a bit frustrating, especially to my dear husband.
In most homes (Christian ones, too) the husband sees himself as the provider (even if he may not come out and say it), so when financial difficulties come, they tend to shoulder all of the burden and worry. Well, this past week at our church, we had revival. Our revival preacher brought out a good point one evening when he said that the husband is NOT the provider of the home–God is. So if there are financial problems, look to your Provider. I kinda nudged my hubby when he said that because I knew he was worried about it–he’s not the type to ever say anything, though. So, we just kept on praying like we always have that God would provide for us.
It hasn’t been easy, really, and I’m sure a lot of you understand what I mean. We NEVER go out to eat. I go to the grocery store once a week and get all we need for me to cook every night. I don’t mind cooking, but it gets a bit old sometimes :). We are the epitome of “penny-pinchers.” We have been very wise with our money (such as it is!).
Philip told me that he prayed yesterday morning that God would send us a check for $1500 to get us out from under the medical bill debt so we could start paying down the credit card debt. He looked in the mail yesterday and there was no check. He prayed again this morning that God would please put the check in the mail.
He had to go to Wal-Mart today to get diapers. Our oldest, Annika, has grown out of all of her Fall/Winter clothes and so while there he knew he had to get her some clothes to wear. So, he got her a few outfits and shirts and added up what we had left in the checking account and what he was about to spend. He got to the checkout and had to decide whether or not to put it on a credit card or trust God and just pay for it out of the checking account. He decided to trust God and just go ahead and pay it out of the checking account. He got into the car and realized that we only had about $50 in our checking account (which I had just punched in a few minutes before he went to Walmart) and the reality of that coupled with all the debt began to really bother him. The whole way home, he was almost in tears because of the financial strain, but he just kept thinking, “I am going to just trust the Lord.” All the way home, he was so hoping that check he had prayed for would be there. He pulled into the drive way and checked our mail box. No check.
He walked down to church’s mailbox and checked it. In it was two checks from Central Baptist in Dunn, NC–one for the church and one for our family! The check for our family covered all the debt we needed to pay. The really amazing thing that I told Philip later was that the mailman had delivered our mail to the house earlier because there was a package and she asked if me if I wanted the church mail too. I said yes, so she gave me all the mail. But yet, somehow that check was sitting there in the church’s mail box!
Philip came to where the girls and I were outside playing he was crying. I didn’t know what was going on, but then once he showed me, we just cried together–amazed at God’s faithfulness!
I just had to share this because I know there may be people struggling with things like this and God’s promises will come true if you trust Him. He definitely deserves the glory and I am so glad that I can write this so many people will see what and awesome and personal God He is!